Saturday 19 March 2022
The US military and lawmakers are pushing president Joe Biden to station hundreds of commandos in Somalia to fight the al-Shabaab Islamist group. It would be another phase in Somalia’s decades-long agony at the hands of imperialism. The US has conducted a largely secret war against the group since 2007. The US Africa Command has launched hundreds of airstrikes, killing thousands of people. But it has admitted to only a single case of killing civilians.
Abdullahi Hassan, Amnesty International’s Somalia researcher, wrote in 2020, “The US military should not be allowed to continue to paint its civilian victims as ‘terrorists’ while leaving grieving families in the lurch.”
He added that some of the attacks “amount to apparent violations of international humanitarian law”. Somalia has been a target of the great powers ever since its independence in 1960. It has a strategic position with close access to the oil shipping lanes of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. This made it a prize during the Cold War between Russia and the US.
In 1992 the US invaded, using famine as a pretext. Initially welcomed, the US soon became hated. Massacres, torture and virulent racism by the US-led forces made them deeply resented and eventually resistance forced a humiliating US withdrawal. Amid the chaos and poverty caused by the US intervention, various Islamist groups emerged offering stability. They won widespread popularity compared to what had gone before. They were pushed out by a Western-backed invasion led by Ethiopian forces.
The present government in Somalia survives only because it is backed by 20,000 African Union (AU) troops and the political support of the US. But the US has now begun implementing sanctions against some Somali leaders because the government has been so slow to hold elections.
These would be useful in camouflaging the reality of outside control. The AU troops are widely unpopular because of their brutal treatment of local people. But the UN is poised later this month to clear them to remain for years more. This is the climate in which al‑Shabaab has grown. Its soldiers have repeatedly seized territory from the government.
Socialist Worker
