The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controls the capital, Mogadishu, and much of south and central Somalia, issued a directive on Tuesday banning exports of charcoal and rare birds and animals, an official told IRIN. The Executive Committee of the UIC issued the directive after a full committee meeting agreed to the ban, Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar, the UIC Vice-Chairman, said. "The decision was reached after the committee was briefed on the dangers posed by the indiscriminate cutting of our trees," he said.

At least 100 Somalis are arriving daily in northeastern Kenya, fleeing mounting insecurity in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. "One week alone we had about 1,800 people arriving in Dadaab refugee camp," Emmanuel Nyabera, the spokesman for the Kenyan office of the UNHCR, said. Those arriving in Dadaab are generally in good health, but many are visibly exhausted from the long journey, he said.

Seven countries yesterday (August 18) resolved to deploy soldiers to keep peace in Somalia in a few weeks. They have started revising an Operational Deployment Mission Plan for presentation to the UN Security Council to allow for the lifting of an arms embargo in the region. They are Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Uganda.

Months of fighting in Mogadishu has just ended, with the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) defeating warlords allegedly backed by the United States for control of the capital. In the last week, the threat of new violence has loomed with reports that Ethiopian troops have entered the country to defend its powerless government against the Islamist forces. The following article was compiled and submitted to Pambazuka News by Strategic Initiatives for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network and details the difficulties faced by ordinary people trying to escape the violence.

The struggle for power in Somalia is an ongoing battle. In recent days Ethiopian troops have been sent into the country, allegedly backed by the US, to defend the town of Baidoa, seat of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), against a possible attack from the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) who took control of the capital Mogadishu last month.

The battle for the capital itself involved many months of fighting between the UIC’s militia, who have also assumed power in many areas of South Somalia, and an alliance of warlords believed to have been backed by the US. The involvement of the Islamists is only the most recent move in a series of power struggles which began following the departure of Siad Barre’s Government, overthrown in 1991. Warlords have fought between themselves ever since to succeed in governing the country.

Now, although most of the warlords have fled Mogadishu, there remains a continued threat of further conflict with the rising tension between the UIC and the TFG. Many Somalis, whose population is predominantly Muslim, are glad that the Islamists have taken control of the capital because they have brought a severe reduction in violence. However UIC control has raised alarm with the TFG (who have limited power), Ethiopia and the US. They believe that Islamic dominance will lead to Somalia becoming a safe haven for terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda.

Yet while the gunbattles rage and the political struggles are fought it is the people of Somalia who continue to suffer as victims of attacks, with few job opportunities, with no stable Government and thus little access to services. Moreover, unlike its neighbour Sudan, due to the ferocity of fighting and lack of Government, the involvement of the international community in assisting Somalia has been limited. For many Somalis life has become unbearable and they have little hope for any improvement. Violence against women, including rape, is rife, there are limited police and hospitals, theft and lootings by gangs is commonplace, most children in IDP camps have had no education and many IDPs are forced to move from camp to camp.

This has driven some Somalis to take desperate measures to try to change their situation. A special report by IRIN (UN news agency) in June told the tales of the thousands of Somali people attempting to escape to the Middle East by paying middlemen to take them across the Red Sea. Many never make it past the port as their fares for the journey – their life savings – are stolen on the way to reach the boats. Others who make the treacherous voyage will have their bodies washed up on the shores of Yemen. Even those who do make it risk being deported back to Somalia. But they will try again; for Somalis life or death is a challenge they face every day.

Civil Society Forum for Peace

Two Strategic Initiatives for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) members, the Coalition of Grassroots Women’s Organisations (COGWO) and the Peace and Human Rights Network (PHRN), have joined with other civil rights groups in Somalia to set up a Civil Society Forum which held its first planning meetings this month. The idea of the Forum came about in response to the continued conflict in Somalia, the recent deployment of Ethiopian troops and tensions between the TFG and UIC, which has led to fears of further armed confrontation.

The aim of the Forum is to strengthen the role of civil society in promoting dialogue and in achieving a peaceful resolution to the Somali conflict. The Forum will seek to develop a common agenda, strategy and vision for civil society so that organisations can work together with a comprehensive approach to achieve greater impact. It is hoped that the Forum and its participants will be able to play a crucial role mediating between the UIC and TFG as well as ensuring that community needs are addressed. The Forum also wishes to promote the establishment of a government of national unity and to prevent the collapse of the TFG. Any organisation that believes in these objectives is welcome to become a member of the Forum and further meetings will take place later this month. For more information please contact: [email][email protected]

Saving Lives through Food Distribution

SIHA member Kalsan voluntary organization recently donated 2,000kg of maize and sorghum to four refugee camps in the north of Mogadishu, Karan district, Wajeer quarter. Two hundred families, of mainly women and children, each received 10kg of the provisions. Food distribution projects like this can play a life saving role as few aid resources are available for IDPs living in the camps. However there is hope for the future. The United Nations Emergency Coordinator, Jan Egeland, recently met UIC officials to open discussions on allowing the UN and other aid agencies access to deliver badly needed supplies to Mogadishu.

A Cry for Help: Internally displaced women living in camps in Mogadishu tell their stories

RUKIO AHMED ALI comes from Bakal region of Southern Somalia. “We used to live in another IDP camp which was hit by a mortar during the recent fighting. A friend of mine, an old woman, was killed. A number of children were also killed. Others who did not manage to escape were injured. Most were people I knew and still know. I moved to this IDP camp, Tawakal, after that attack and I feel secure here now.”

On the safety issue she continues: “Whilst I do feel safe here and generally in the city too I have no idea for how long. The shooting and fighting has stopped at the moment and I am able to move around relatively easily. But I don’t have the security of a livelihood to sustain me and my family. I see my future as doomed. Look, I have nothing, no work, no home, just this shelter. Who knows what the Islamists will do. I do not know whether we will have rights under them. Remember that I am an IDP who essentially has no right, no voice and doesn’t exist. In that context, my future is bleak. But there is something I do know, this war has caused unimaginable suffering to a lot of people and it must end. Can you help, please?”

SA’IDO BARISE CEYMOY lives at AMIN NUR IDP camp in Wardhigley District in Mogadishu. She and her family were evacuated from another IDP camp known as BUR EYLON in Bay Region, South West of Mogadishu. She has two children and is 7 months pregnant. “It was terrible (referring to the recent fighting). Right now as we speak, I do not know the whereabouts of my husband. It is two months today since he disappeared. I do not know whether he was killed or what. I am very worried. I have two young children and am pregnant. I do not know how I will cope without him. Life has become a misery. This war has made me very sad and angry. It has robbed me of my husband. I live here, a miserable life. I own nothing that I can call my own: no assets and no means to earn a livelihood. The future is bleak for me and my children whose father…no one knows where he is!”

On the issue of sending her children to school she responds with a smile: “That is a good thing to do for ones’ kids, but I am not in a position to send them since I have no means to pay them through school. In any case I do not feel comfortable enough to do so since security is not yet all that good. Remember I am an IDP. To me the most important thing is to try to feed, clothe and house them. That is what is critical. Can I do that? I do not know since right now I am pregnant and cannot seek any work around the camp or outside. It is terrible. My husband was everything and now he is not here.”

MADINO ADEN BIYOOLE and her family have lived in Mogadishu for a period of 12 years. They left their home in the Bay region of Somalia because of severe drought. “Fighting has become a normal occurrence here. We hide under these makeshift huts as our only place to seek safety. However, fighting does not know IDP camps, it does not know children, it does not know women and the elderly. These people shell everywhere indiscriminately. It is terrifying especially for the kids. I thank God we are alive and together. But I don’t know for how long. I feel secure now but who knows, another fight may be coming. It is awful. It may not be over yet. Pressure must be exerted on these people to lay down their weapons and seek dialogue for the sake of peace. In Somalia life is all about risks perpetrated by power hungry people. As a woman, things are harder. As an IDP they are even worse. I am helpless and feel unworthy. Imagine what could happen if a shell hit this hut?” She begins to cry.

FATIMA AHMED MOHAMED: “I do not know where Somalia is heading. The people fighting have no compassion for us women and children. They have been fighting for so long that it has become a habit. This madness must stop and let us rebuild our lost lives. Look at this camp (Fardow). Is it a place for human beings? No sanitation, no clean water and no means to change the situation since no work is available. We live in poverty, wretched poverty. Why has God forsaken us?”

FADUMO SHEIKH ALI has lived in ISBARTIIBO IDP camp for 10 years. She originally comes from the Bay region of South Somalia. “I tell you, we have nothing: no clothes, no shelter (pointing around) and no food. I am waiting for God to help and improve my future. We live in deplorable conditions as you can see. This is made worse by war, war, war or whatever you may call it. It kills people: young, old, women, men and everyone. It does not help anyone. I feel angry, angry at those causing us so much suffering, so much trauma and above all making it difficult to have a livelihood. I need to be secure from harm, secure from hunger and secure in assets. But I do not possess any of these. Of course the fighting has stopped again but nothing has changed for me. I still eke a living from begging. Is that the life we want to live? NO! We want our leaders to give us hope not misery. We need the basic requirements of life: schools for our children, health centres for pregnant mothers and livelihoods. Maybe what I am saying is a dream. So be it. Let me dream to soothe my pain temporarily, to reduce my sadness and anger. What a world we live in! It is not a good life to live in an IDP camp. But this has become necessary because of selfishness amongst our leaders who have no souls, hearts and foresight. What a pity.”

* This article was compiled and submitted to Pambazuka News by Strategic Initiatives for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network. SIHA is a network of civil society organisations from North and South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Somaliland. Founded in 1995 by a collection of women's groups with the view of strengthening their capacity, SIHA has grown over the years and is now comprised of 28 member organisations.

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Martin Adler, 2006; Kate Peyton, 2005; Duniya Muhyadin Nur, 2005; Abdullahi Madkeer, 2003; Ahmed Kafi Awale, 2000; Marcello Palmisano, 1995; Miran Krovatin, 1994; Ilaria Alpi, 1994; Pierre Anceaux, 1994; Jean-Claude Jumel, 1993; Hansi Krauss, 1993; Hosea Maina, 1993; Dan Eldon, 1993; Anthony Macharia, 1993*. The list of journalists killed in Somalia since the overthrow of dictator Muhammad Siad Barre in 1991 contains 14 names. And, it risks growing longer.

As we near the first democratic elections in nearly 40 years in the DRC, yet another self-serving conflict is brewing in Africa. This time it is between Somalia and Ethiopia.

Ethiopundit - Ethiopundit (http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/08/taken-for-ride.html) believes the present near conflict between the two countries serves the interests of both Meles Zenawi and the Somali religious warlords.

“Both have now acquired the 'worthy' opponents of their dreams (and everyone else's nightmares) to justify and excuse all of their myriad crimes - past, present and future - while they fortify and refortify their respective revolutions…No one else benefits except for the web of aggressive international mayhem that is attempting to hijack Islam (arms dealers and Swiss bankers too). Ethiopians and the donor patrons of Meles Inc. are, in turn, unwillingly and quite willingly being forced to go along for a ride that will end badly…”

Have US interests a part to play in this proposed conflict – Zenawi being backed by the US in yet another proxy war on their behalf against the Islamic forces they could not defeat via the old Somali warlords?

Nazret.com - Nazret.com (http://nazret.com/blog/index.php?title=20000_ethiopians_in_lebanon&more…) points to an article that reports on some 2000 Ethiopians and other stranded migrant workers in Lebanon. Many governments of these nationals are unable to evacuate their citizens and are calling on the International Organisation on Migration to assist them. For example, Ghana has said it has at least 500 citizens in Beirut and more in Tripoli. Nigerians are also amongst the dead and displaced. Many other African nationals are in Lebanon, displaced and without the means to survive.

Egyptian bloggers, Manal and Alaa’s Bucket - Manal and Alaa's Bucket (http://www.manalaa.net/me-5th-columnist) address a short message to the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, criticising them for their “lack of adventure”:

“We argue that sometimes staying safe is not an option, and that you have to sacrifice and pay the price of your adventure [rather] than pay the price of sitting idly and waiting…look at the state we live in, look at how hopeless we Egyptians have become; look at how the government cracks down on citizens even if they don't get involved in politics at all; look at how optimistic and proud HizbAllah's adventure made us. Yet you Muslim Brotherhood remain conservative in your actions and [are] moving slowly. Even the younger generations of the Muslim Brothers are cautious! Isn't it part of being young to be daring and a bit reckless? Don't you all burn inside with the need to act, the need to do something? The urge to engage in an ‘adventure’?”

Passion of the Present - Passion of the Present (http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2006/07/jan_pronk_on_th.h…) posts a piece by Jan Pronk on the lack of progress since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement.

“Ten weeks after the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement the situation is still quite bleak… Violations of the agreement continue. Intra SLA fighting has not stopped. Two new movements have emerged. One is called the G19, a group which originally consisted of nineteen people, who were present in Abuja as members or advisors of the SLA delegation, but who increasingly disagreed with the leadership…A second new group is the New Redemption Front (NRF). They seem to have their base in the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which had participated in the Abuja talks…”

Pronk explains the actions of the two groups and other factions over the past few weeks. He believes that peace cannot take place under the present conditions as most people do not have trust in those that signed the DPA. Added to that is the failure by Khartoum to disarm the Janjaweed who continue to carry out atrocities.

Nigerian blogger, Story of My Life Story of My Life (http://nijaoffspring.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-i-resent-white-people-pt-…) writes a piece on white people’s response to racism. She goes on to discuss slavery and the effect of the European invasion on Africa and the benefits to European countries of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

“The first act against Africa by Whites was a unilateral act of war, announced or unannounced. There were no African Kings or Queens in any of the European countries or in the US when ships set sail for Africa to capture slaves for profit. White people had already decided to raid for slaves. They didn't need the agreement of black people on that. Hence, the concept of ‘trade’ is a fallacy. The African so-called slave ‘trade’ was a demand-driven market out of Europe and America, not a supply-driven market out of Africa. Africans did not seek to sell captives to the white people as an original act.”

“As Britain developed into the world's first post-industrial nation, financial services became an increasingly important sector of its economy. Invisible financial exports, as mentioned, kept Britain out of the red, especially capital investments outside Europe, particularly to the developing and open markets in Africa and predominantly white settler colonies. In addition, surplus capital was often more profitably invested overseas, where cheap labour, limited competition, and abundant raw materials made a greater premium possible.”

The Cameroonian blogosphere is coming alive with yet another new blog – Martin Jumbam is a journalist and translator Martin Jumbam (http://www.martinjumbam.com/2006/07/interview_with_.html). He has a series of interviews with Professor Abioseh Michael Porter. In the first interview they discuss the use of pidgin or krio in literary expression. Porter says the response to writing in pidgin differs depending on who you talk to. The masses are very receptive and appreciative whilst the educated elite of Cameroon, Nigeria and Sierra Leone despise it’s use. In Cameroon there exists a hierarchy of language:

“At the top of the ladder, you have French, which by sheer number of speakers outranks the others, and then there is English, with Pidgin coming a distant third. There was the mistaken assumption that Pidgin would corrupt the speaker’s correct use of English. Linguistically that is, of course, not true because if you study Pidgin, or any other language, in and of itself and use it the way it is meant to be used, it would be difficult to confuse one with the other. Take the Romance languages of Europe, for example. They are morphologically quite similar but people don’t mix them up simply for that reason. What we have here is simply a kind of superiority complex, if you can excuse that term, European languages have in relation to Pidgin or Krio.”

A number of Nigeria writers have chosen to write in pidgin. Amos Tutola is probably the most famous and Ken Saro Wiwa’s “Sozaboy: A story in rotten English” is one of his best. However on the whole the use of pidgin has been marginalized even though it is used by all strata of society in day-to-day speech.

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks,

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Thousands of Somalis have staged a rally in Mogadishu calling on Ethiopian troops to leave their country. The demonstrators burnt Ethiopian flags at a protest in the capital, which since June has been run by the powerful Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). The UIC has vowed to expel Ethiopian troops who are deployed to assist the weak transitional Somali government.
* Related Link
Experts see proxy war under way

Gunmen have killed 682 civilians, including a foreign journalist, in executions over the past year in Somalia, a local rights group said Sunday (July 23). The killings took place largely in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Some came during battles for control of the city, others were due to clan differences, a few were kidnappings and some were for unknown motives, according to the report by the Dr. Ismael Jumale Human Rights Center.

I have great respect for Tajudeen and always admire his immense analytical capacities. I thank him for this reflection and pertinent questions on Somalia. (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/panafrican/35322) I also rejoice the kicking out of harmful bandits of bad taste known as warlords.

However, I would like to caution our enthusiasm. We must wait and see the behaviour of these new dynamics in the Somalia crisis. Tajudeen manifested the same euphoria when Kagame, Museveni and Kabila came to power.

I will insist we watch these new dynamics as they are still unfolding in Somalia, before any significant support for one or the other group is formulated and joyfully advocated for.

If Africa needs a rebirth, it should be on principled foundations and not on momentous military victories.

Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has dropped his opposition to talks in Sudan with Islamist leaders who control the capital, Mogadishu. He boycotted talks with the Union of Islamic Courts, accusing them of breaking a previously agreed ceasefire.

Heavy fighting has broken out in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, with Islamic militia using rockets and artillery. The Islamists, who control most of the south of the country, are trying to take an area in the city's south that is controlled by warlord Abdi Qeybdid. Eyewitnesses spoke of heavy casualties with up to 60 people reported killed and 100 injured in two days of clashes.

Somalia's fluid political situation underwent yet another shift during the weeks of June 26 and July 3, as the conflict spilled over into neighboring states and became regionalized, and Osama bin Laden weighed in with his take on the struggle between the Islamic Courts Council (I.C.C.), which controls most of the country's south, and the internationally-backed but weak Transitional Federal Government (T.F.G.) based in the town of Baidoa.

A two-member United Nations security team has met Islamist leaders in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. It is the UN's first contact with Mogadishu's new rulers since they took over from the warlords a month ago. Islamist fighters are trying to disarm Abdi Awale Qeydiid, the last of the warlords they defeated in Mogadishu, some 30km from the city.

The purpose of the consultancy is to advise and facilitate the process of water policy development in Puntland State. It is therefore a process-oriented purpose with the respective results. While the consultancy as such can surely not guarantee that a policy document is established, it is expected that it leaves the government and all stakeholders with the knowledge and documentation necessary to finish the policy making process.

Somalia's Islamic Courts Union has blamed foreigners for the murder of a Swedish journalist during a massive demonstration organised by the group in Mogadishu after Friday prayers to support a new peace deal, writes Eric Nyakagwa. The Swedish cameraman, Martin Halder, was hit in the heart by a pistol bullet, according to journalists at the Fagaaraha Tarabunka (Tribune Plaza), where the demonstration was taking place, reports Journalism.co.za.

Somalia's interim government and the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), the group that controls Mogadishu, have agreed to mutually recognise each other and engage in further dialogue in a bid to bring stability to the war-torn country. Both parties also agreed to end "all harmful propaganda" against each other, Adow said. They agreed to meet again in Khartoum on 15 July for a more substantive round of talks.

Tajudeed Abdul Raheem asks who the real terrorists are in Mogadishu: Those who have held the people to ransom for two decades or those who have chased them away?

When a people have suffered for a long time under a dictatorship the tendency is to declare that nothing could be worse than what they were experiencing. Lived experience does teach a different lesson. No matter how bad the situation is it could always be worse. But the opposite is also true. No matter how good it is it can always be better.

Who would have thought that the jubilations at the exit of Somalia's long term dictator, Mohammed Siad Barre, in 1991 would quickly turn into a prolonged nightmare for his compatriots who have not known peace or even enjoyed the protection of a legitimate government since then. Siad Barre lies reburied in Mogadishu after his body was returned from Nigeria where his life ended peacefully after being given a 'safe haven' by the Nigerian government. The country he led with 'iron fists' and 'velvet tongue' for more than two decades is wasted and wasting between different pretenders to Barre's crown, who are all warlords well-equipped to destroy states but possess no skills for building a nation.

Somalia also tragically epitomises a number of contradictions for those of us who proclaim 'African solutions to African problems' and Pan Africanism, rightly eschewing external meddling by imperialist powers in African affairs but sometimes ambiguous about the sub imperialist meddling of fellow African states. One, is our loyalty to a state or to peoples? The state of Somalia has collapsed and probably may never be one state again, but somehow the international system has kept it existing because it remains the unit of discussion whether at the AU or UN. Somali peoples, like all victims of colonialism, are divided among many countries: Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti in addition to Somalia itself. In Somalia itself the south is claiming to be Somaliland while Puntland is also claiming to be independent of both Somalia and Djibouti. Though the Somali state has collapsed the Somali people continue to exist.

Two, it is not about fixing the Somali state but actually looking at it beyond the colonial borders and finding a regional solution to it. It points to federal and con-federal arrangements of the East and Horn of African states. But this logical political conclusion challenges the basis of all our states. That is why even the laudable work of the IGAD states backed by the AU and supported by genuine friends of Africa internationally is falling short of achieving peace and stability in Somalia and the region. They are looking at it as a Somali problem (and a hard dose of prejudice of them being 'difficult' Muslims prone to clan violence) instead of being a Pan African problem.

If we respond to it boldly it will not be limited to Somalis. It will address the historical problems of being part of but not belonging, of many arbitrarily nationalities across this continent: Banyarwanda, Banyamulenge, Bafumbira, Ewes, Ja luos, Ba samia, Hausa, Yoruba, Tswana, Basuto, Tigre, to mention just a few. But it will also change the map of Africa. It is the lack of political will to face the inevitable that is making our leaders engage in half-measures that often give disproportionate influence to war lords at our negotiating tables. IGAD states did a great job in patiently facilitating and negotiating for peace in Somalia, leading to the formation of the transitional government two years ago. However the reality now is that that government has been overtaken by major political developments. To insist on it and deal with it as though it is a normal government risks making not just the TFG but also the IGADD and the AU irrelevant in resolving the Somali issue.

There are a number of reasons for this. First, though the TFG is the result of tortuous and complex negotiations that seemed all-inclusive, the warlords had more power and influence in the shape of it. Their crimes, many of them qualifying as 'crimes against humanity' were rewarded with impunity.

Two, precisely because they were rewarded instead of them changing their old ways they continued business as usual in Mogadishu, trying to gain advantage over each other. That's why the TFG has metamorphosed from a refugee government based in Kenya into an internally displaced government first hosted by the warlord, Mohammed Dheere, in Jowhar, but now relocated to Baidoa, and why the interim president, Abdulahi Yusuf, is being hosted by yet another war lord.

Three, while the TFG enjoys the diplomatic and political recognition of the AU and internationally, it does not seem to enjoy popular legitimacy and it is unable to impose its legal authority at home. Can the world force Somalis to accept a government that is ineffective and doomed to remain ineffectual? This is the context which some of the neighbours of Somalia and global geo-political power mongers are exploiting. While officially publicly offering support for the TFG their actions have helped to undermine and erode its fragile legitimacy. Chief among these are the US and Ethiopia.

The militias in Mogadishu have used both countries' unprincipled alliances in Somali politics and their obsession with 'Islamic fundamentalism' to gain support. Meanwhile Somalis fed up with the militias and wanting a 'law and order' environment and a guarantee of personal and group security for their lives and property turn to their culture, traditional structures and religion. The Union of Islamic Courts led by an ordinary teacher Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed, is the umbrella under which ordinary Somalis have united to get rid of militias and warlords backed by various foreign interests. The ease with which they have moved from Mogadishu to other areas of the country should caution us from joining the sponsors of defeated and fleeing warlords who call them yet another 'Muslim fundamentalist' group. They are giving indications of being a popular movement . As yet they are unclear of their purpose as a government and probably ill-equipped to govern a modern state but they are able to bring security and peace based on notions of Islamic rule of Law and social justice. They have rendered the TFG a dead horse. For how long are we going to be insisting that Somalis ride this dead horse?

What is now happening in Mogadishu, Beledweyne and other cities is quite similar to what has happened in Somaliland, where a coalition of similar Islamist forces (up to now not recognised by any other state in the world) have managed to maintain peace and security based on a mixture of cultural order and conservative Islamic values. Neighbours and other foreigners should not be allowed to hide their sub imperialist and imperialist interests behind support for the TFG . There are reports (denied by Addis Ababa) that Ethiopia has sent troops to Baidoa and is arming the TFG, while the Americans have also denied supporting the defeated and fleeing warlords. Two of them, Bashir Rage and Sudi Yallaow, were allegedly rescued by American marines off the coast of Somalia while they were fleeing. Another war lord, Mohamed Abdi Qanyare is reported to have fled to El-Dheere while his name sake Mohammed Dheere is reported to have fled to Addis Ababa.

Meanwhile the other warlords in Mogadishu, Hussein Aideed and Ali Ato, have willingly surrended themselves to the Union of Islamic courts, hoping to join 'the storm' thy could not stop. Ato reportedly compared the highly successful routing of all the warlords by the Islamists to being 'hit by hurricane'.

As the AU meets in Banjul, Gambia next week our leaders have to reflect very seriously on the admittedly difficult challenges posed by the latest twist in the tragedy of Somalia. The IGADD states and the AU need to be sufficiently flexible and nuanced in handling this new situation. It is possible that the Union of Islamic courts may cooperate with the TFG but as long as the TFG does not insist on formal legalism. The TFG could also use the Union to build a popular legitimacy if they are seen to be cooperating. So far the Union has not been imposing leaders - rather they ask all the residents to choose their leaders to work with the new order. In some cases, significantly in Mogadishu itself, where people have opted for the leader put there by the TFG, the Union has not refused to honor that choice, hence the mayor of Mogadishu remains the same.

There needs to be clarity as to who will have sanctions imposed on them. Is it those who are now restoring order or the fleeing former warlords? If the AU encourages Ethiopia, the USA and other meddlers to continue to arm the TFG in the name of being the legitimate government it will be fueling more death and destruction and giving the fleeing warlords a new lease of life. For decades, the Somali state has been formed and reformed and deformed around the interests of various militarised local elites and various external geo-political interests. Now the voice of the people of Somalia seem to be coming out loud and clear. So the fundamental question is: Are you for the state or the people? Who are the terrorists in Somalia? Those who have held the people to ransom for two decades or those who have chased them away?

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The United Nations is planning to send a humanitarian mission to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to see how to best address the critical needs of civilians, a senior UN official said. However, the mission would only go to Mogadishu if there were guarantees of security on the ground.

East African states have agreed to isolate leaders of armed factions in Somalia by imposing a regional travel ban on them and freezing their assets in a bid to help the nation's fledgling transitional federal government restore stability. Kenya took the lead last week, imposing sanctions against Somalia's so-called "warlords" after they and their militia were driven out of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, by forces loyal to the city's Islamic courts.

Abdulahai Dahir, coordinator of Somali Reunification Women’s Union (SRWU), works with displaced people in Bosasso. He tries to dissuade would-be migrants from risking the sea crossing by showing them graphic photographs of those who died attempting it. His organisation also helps distribute food to about 3,000 Ethiopians who are stranded and homeless in the port.