SOMALIA: THE NEW BATTLE GROUND for ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTISTS

News from Somalia in the last several months has been both disheartening and alarming to say the least. At first it was a looming severe drought then massive floods that swept through most of the dismally poor horn of African nation.

Now it is the all out conflict between the fragile government forces and the conglomerate of Islamic fundamentalist parties that control most of the country.

I am even hesitant to call Somalia a country because am not sure it meets the criteria to be recognized as one, aside from the fact that it shares geographical boundaries with other countries in the region.

Somalia plunged into seemingly abysmal turmoil following the ouster of its long time leader Siad Barre in 1991.

Since then, several different political and Islamic factions have fought for the control of this beleaguered nation resulting in hundreds of thousands lost human lives and millions of others as refugees around the world including here in the United States.

The chaos in Somalia prompted a late military intervention from the United Nations and ultimately the United States. Both interventions ended in disaster better memorialized by the Hollywood movie, “Black Hawk Down”.

However one may choose to look at it, the military operation in Somalia both by the UN and US went down in history as a big failure.

But am more concerned by the silence and cold shoulder treatment that Somalia has received from the international community especially in the face of the ever-growing influence of the Islamic fundamentalists.

We seem to have forgotten that failed states are easy sanctuary to terrorist groups and other Islamic extremists just like Afghanistan was during the Taliban rule.

Given the situation in Somalia - lack of functioning government since 1991, tribal division in a country that is nearly 99 per cent Muslim, abject poverty- it has all he ingredients for Al Qaida sanctuary.

According to the US State Department, radical groups that attacked US Marines in Mogadishu leading to eventual American withdrawal from Somalia may have had links with Al Qaida.