Syyah Brown
Period 2
WLH
Terrorism With no Heroism
Imagine waking up in the morning to the sound of gunshots, and the cries of your neighbors who are being raided by Somali terrorists right across the dirt path from your hut. Everyday a starving kid in Somalia witnesses this. After the civil war in Somalia that lasted for two years from 1988 to 1990, the Somali government found itself in an economic crisis. Even after the war had settled, it had left many battle scars for the country, which was eventually torn into pieces. Somalia faced many following hardships such as poverty, debt, and famine. After the war, the remaining militants formed Al-Shabaab, a group of twenty young men that rebelled against the government and resorted to anarchy. Eventually the group gradually increased in numbers as it gained more support from middle eastern terrorist influences.
Initially formed to unify and protect the country of Somalia, the group eventually began to destroy the country due to different religious ideologies. “Middle Eastern-educated Somali extremists, were partly funded and armed by al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. In fact all of the Al-Shabaab commanders originally fought it the war in the Afghanistan war after being pushed out of Somalia by Ethiopia. The U.S. State Department designated the group a terrorist organization in the days after the 9/11 attacks” (Cfr.org). Most of the terrorist organizations in Somalia get their extremist ideology from their influential middle eastern extremists. Most of their weapons and training are already implemented into their curriculum due to their extensive amounts of military training. When trying to invade towns and cities, Somali extremists look to Al-Qaeda for support.
With all of Somalia being Muslim, and waning on government security for the civilians, there is more leeway for the foreign middle eastern invaders to take advantage of the vulnerable state of the country, making it a prime location to implement terrorist recruitment and development. Not to mention, the cause of political upheaval after the civil war between Ethiopia and Somalia, caused economic instability and the weakening of their military (Siad Barre's military regime). This leads to the next issue: Somalia is too helpless and weak when faced with these terrorist attacks. Now one may be thinking, what has the government done to stop this? Well, the main reason why this country has been an all out battlefield already, is due to how impoverished and corrupt the government is. Government funding funnels into little if not nothing into military sectors. “Transparency International, a U.K.-based research organization that tracks corruption and perceptions of corruption worldwide, gave every single African country surveyed (47 out of 54) a failing or near-failing grade when it comes to preventing graft in their defense sectors” (Time).
To make matters worse, the government is prone to accepting bribes since it has fallen into serious debt from being too internally corrupt. In fact, terrorist organizations are known to be better equipped and heavily funded by underground black marketing of illegal American weapon sales for terrorists activity (Al Jazeera). This caused a collaborative effort of the African union to come together and form a non-profitable defense military that is still developing. But due to the organization being underfunded they are still weak and no match for the terrorists, who are continuing to get stronger as they continue to recruit new members everyday. With all of this being said, it is clear that Somalia is desperate need for an intervention when it comes to military defense. With the government kissing at the feet of the much more, powerful enemy.
Works Cited
"African Standby Force Starts First Military Exercises - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2016.” South African Military in start to take things to the next level with combative training. The African union asks for donation of 1million dollars in order to make the combative group fully functional. After 15 years of the African Union being formed, it still faces challenges such as finances and incoordination of the tenants. The Author also states that the Union was created in order for the African government to provide security that is accessible, can be able to fight well enough to defend all the African countries from external and internal enemy attacks. They did this also so they don’t have to ask for aid from other countries. This source isn’t biased because there is no opposing argument or point of view that is written in the context of this article. This is simple an informative piece telling the reader on what Africa is doing to protect its civilians from impending threats.
"Al-Shabab Attacks African Union Base in Somalia." - Al Jazeera English. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2016. Terrorist group Al-Shabaab. In the newspaper, Al-Jazeera the author talks about the attack of an African union military base near the border of Kenya. He explains and interviews the eye-witnesses/military workers that saw the attack in the midst of it happening. The attack came in numerous assaults using different sources of fire power to take out different parts of the base. Al-Jazeera also talks about how the military of the AU’s attempts to fight back, but unlucky enough find out they are outnumbered. This source is reliable because it comes from a Somali newspaper that seems to have pretty trustworthy journalists and photographers who record everything with specific pictures and quotes that they take from people of that specific event. It is an informative article, and not biased because it’s a journalism piece about a current event, and has no argument on the motives on either side of the conflict
