Somalia has been described for decades as the poorest country in the world, and it has witnessed a chronic state of instability and chaos since the fall of the regime of General Mohamed Siad Barre and his escape from Mogadishu on January 27, 1991.
This general had tried in 1877-1978 to annex the Ogaden region, which has a Somali majority, and entered into a war with Ethiopia, but his policies sparked tribal contradictions that Addis Ababa exploited and ended with the rebels, with Ethiopian military support, taking control of Mogadishu and overthrowing the Siad Barre regime.
Then the Somaliland region in the north of the country declared its independence unilaterally, while the second de facto state of Puntland (Puntland) was formed in the northeast of the country. The conflict spread in Mogadishu and the capital and its surrounding areas became battlefields. The Islamic Courts Union appeared, then the Al-Shabaab group, and it did not stop. Rivalry and fighting, after the state was torn apart and the country entered a state of chronic failure that has been continuing for 33 years.
The harsh fate of Somalia has made millions of its people live on United Nations aid for many years, and the bloody conflict there does not end until it begins again.
The Ethiopian army intervened in this country more than once, and the complications of this country's successive crises affected Kenya, so it sent its forces there, and the United States also sent large forces on one occasion, but everyone left and the country remained between the two extremes of famine and death.
This state of chaos, division, and weak central authority provided an incubator for extremist groups on the ground. Pirate activity also spread on the coast of Somalia, threatening navigation in a wide area of the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean, to the point that 60 ships were subjected to attacks by Somali pirates in 2008.
As if all these calamities were not enough for more than 17 million people living in Somalia, reports emerged of toxic waste being dumped in the cover of darkness on the coast of Somalia, which extends for 3,300 kilometers.
This threat was reinforced in 2004 after the discovery, following the tsunami, of corroded metal containers and barrels containing radioactive materials and toxic industrial waste in several locations in southern and central Somalia.
In the places where the toxic containers were found, a number of local fishermen died suddenly, and other residents in several Somali regions also complained of similar sudden deaths, some suffering from skin rashes, and incidents of fish deaths being recorded.
This serious scandal, in which European companies are accused, was not faced with appropriate measures, while reports stated that about 35 million tons of toxic waste were dumped on the Somali coast, which includes medical, industrial, chemical, and even nuclear waste.
The United Nations Environment Program had reported that some of the containers appeared to contain "radioactive waste," and that residents of affected areas were suffering from "mouth bleeding, abdominal bleeding, unusual skin disorders, and breathing difficulties."
What's worse is that it was reported in 2009 that some Somali militias had dealt for a long time with the "Ndrangheta", one of the most powerful Italian mafias based in the Calabria region located in southwestern Italy, and allowed it to use Somalia as a dumping ground for toxic waste in exchange for obtaining weapons.
Somali sea pirates took advantage of this issue and justified their naval attacks on civilian ships by dumping foreign ships on their country's coasts with toxic waste.
Somalia, where all evils have gathered, and whose population has been threatened by famine for decades, is not a poor country as it is described. Its land is reportedly replete with large untapped reserves of many natural resources such as iron ore, uranium, copper, tin, bauxite, gypsum, salt, natural gas, and even oil.
The Range Resource Oil Group, based in Sydney, Australia, estimated that the Puntland province in northern Somalia alone is capable of producing between 5 and 10 million barrels of oil. But in the end, all of this has no effect, while the cycle of violence and chaos continues and 17 million Somalis oscillate between death from starvation or from the weapons of the combatants.
Sudan : More than 50 people were killed in an attack in the disputed Abyei region
The Associated Press reported that more than 50 people, including United Nations peacekeepers, were killed in an attack on the disputed Abyei region on the border between Sudan and South Sudan.
The agency explained, quoting a local official, that “armed men attacked the Abyei area, killing 52 people, including a soldier from the United Nations peacekeeping forces, and wounding 64 others.”
According to the agency, "the attackers were young men from one of the local tribes from the neighboring Warrap region," noting that "members of this tribe have long been in conflict over lands in Abyei with another tribe."
The agency added that the United Nations Interim Security Force in Abyei (UNISFA) confirmed "the killing of a Ghanaian peacekeeper and said it repelled the attack."
It is noteworthy that Abyei is a disputed area between Sudan and South Sudan, and the United Nations Security Council established the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), which monitors tensions along the border between north and south, facilitates the delivery of humanitarian aid, and protects civilians and relief workers in Abyei.
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