December 4, 2007: The fighting
in Mogadishu continues, with Ethiopian troops continuing to empty neighborhoods
that give shelter (and recruits) for the Islamic militants. Over a thousand
people a day are fleeing the city, for improvised refugee camps on the
outskirts. The fighting, mostly in Mogadishu, has killed over 5,000 people so
far this year, and created over half a million refugees. All this was the result
of a civil war between a religious, and a secular alliance. The religious
group, the Islamic Courts, got involved with al Qaeda, which was a big mistake.
The secular group, the Transitional Government, spent several years hammering
out a power sharing deal. The Islamic Courts refused to participate in this,
and insisted it was God's Will that the Islamic Courts run the country. Welcome
to Somalia.
The fighting in Mogadishu
hides the fact that the city has more government now, than at any time in the past
15 years. This can be seen by the return of UN food programs, for the first
time since the early 1990s. In that time, UN food programs have operated mainly
in rural areas. The UN is having a hard time getting nations to donate to these
operations. For the last fifteen years, most of the aid money has come from the
United States.
Meanwhile, off the coast, over
a dozen foreign warships are searching for the mysterious pirate "mother
ship." This vessel is believed to be one of the small freighters, or large
fishing boat, that supports the speedboats (full of gunmen) who do the actual
attacks on foreign ships. The mother ship is believed to exist because pirate
speedboats have been spotted too far out to sea, to have gotten there
themselves.
