/ 27 July 2010

Somalia overshadows original theme of AU summit

Somalia Overshadows Original Theme Of Au Summit

An African Union (AU) summit in Uganda is this week being dominated by the Somali crisis, which is overshadowing its official theme of maternal health.

Although the continent is trying to shake its negative reputation and attract investment, the same conflicts push discussions on economic growth and poverty reduction to the bottom of the agenda at AU meetings every year.

Here are some facts on Africa’s main conflicts:

Somalia
Somalia could have been described as Africa’s most ignored conflict until two weeks ago, when its Islamist al-Shabaab militants launched their first attacks outside the country.

The rebels’ suicide attacks on two Kampala bars killed 76 people watching the World Cup final.

Somalia has not had an effective government since dictator Mahomed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. The country was then carved up by warlords and gangsters until an Islamist militia calling itself the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) took control of the capital, Mogadishu in 2006.

The SICC terrified Western governments who feared Somalia could become a hiding place for al Qaeda and a convenient base from which it could launch international attacks.

Ethiopia — backed by the United States — then crossed the border to oust the Islamists and re-install a transitional government that had been cobbled together in neighbouring Kenya.

The move prompted an insurgency against the Ethiopians and the government and a breakaway SICC faction called al-Shabaab — or “the youth” — grew stronger. The militants now have the government hemmed into a few fortified streets of Mogadishu.

African diplomats are unsure what to do about the threat. Some say more soldiers should be sent to join a beleaguered AU peacekeeping force of 6 300 troops and it should be given permission to attack, not just defend, the peace.

Others favour talking to al Shabaab and maybe giving them some power.

Darfur
Sudan’s Darfur region was the African conflict that got all the international attention for a long time, though it doesn’t feature in the headlines so much these days.

It began in 2003 after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan’s government, accusing it of neglecting the western territory.

The government sent in mostly Arab militias to put down the uprising and estimates of the number of people killed since range from the United Nation’ s 300 000 to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s 10 000.

Bashir was last year indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur. This month the court added genocide to the charges, accusing him of presiding over rape, torture and murder in the remote west of Sudan.

The AU summit is divided on whether the organisation should direct its member states not to arrest him on the charges or leave it up to each individual country.

All eyes are now on an independence referendum for the country’s south, set for January 2011. After more than 20 years of civil war, a peace agreement between north and south was signed in 2005.

Support for secession is thought to be overwhelming among a population embittered by decades of war, underdevelopment and perceived exploitation by the northern Muslim elite.

DRC
Democratic Republic of Congo is the country of staggering numbers. One is the estimate that says up to 5,4-million people have died there from fighting, hunger and disease since war broke out in 1998. Another is the paltry amount of articles written about that.

Although the civil war has officially ended, the Congolese army continues to fight several rebel groups, who often prey on civilians.

With more and more oil, gas and mining companies eyeing the country’s abundant riches, and President Joseph Kabila saying he wants a United Nations peacekeeping force out by the end of the next year, the future remains uncertain for a country with huge potential.

Coups
Coup d’Etats: Coups, a blight on Africa for so long, are back. The ousting of governments in Guinea, Niger, Mauritania and Madagascar over the last two years forced the AU to take a harder line.

Coup leaders are now automatically suspended from the organisation and sanctions are usually imposed. It also changed its rules so that it could expel countries, not only when there is a coup, but when leaders try to cling to power by refusing to hold elections. –Reuters