What, after the U.S. worked so hard to overthrow them?
This was a one-day wonder from the NYT:
"As Somali Crisis Swells, Experts See a Void in Aid" by JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
AFGOOYE, Somalia, Nov. 19 — The worst humanitarian crisis in Africa may not be unfolding in Darfur, but here, along a 20-mile strip of busted-up asphalt, several top United Nations officials said.
A year ago, the road between the market town of Afgooye and the capital of Mogadishu was just another typical Somali byway, lined with overgrown cactuses and the occasional bullet-riddled building. Now it is a corridor teeming with misery, with 200,000 recently displaced people crammed into swelling camps that are rapidly running out of food.
Natheefa Ali, who trudged up this road a week ago to escape the bloodbath that Mogadishu has turned into, said Monday that her 10-month-old baby was so malnourished she could not swallow.
Ms. Natheefa, pointing to her daughter’s splotchy legs: “Look, her skin is falling off, too.”
Top United Nations officials who specialize in Somalia said the country had higher malnutrition rates, more current bloodshed and fewer aid workers than Darfur, which is often publicized as the world’s most pressing humanitarian crisis and has taken clear priority in terms of getting peacekeepers and aid money.
The situation is WORSE than Darfur? Thanks, U.S.!
How come everything Bush touches turns to shit?
The relentless urban combat in Mogadishu, between an unpopular transitional government — installed partially with American help — and a determined Islamist insurgency, has driven waves of desperate people up the Afgooye road, where more than 70 camps of twigs and plastic have popped up seemingly overnight.
The people here are hungry, exposed, sick and dying. And the few aid organizations willing to brave a lawless, notoriously dangerous environment cannot keep up with their needs, like providing milk to the thousands of babies with fading heartbeats and bulging eyes.
Eric Laroche, the head of United Nations humanitarian operations in Somalia:
“Many of these kids are going to die. We don’t have the capacity to reach them. If this were happening in Darfur, there would be a big fuss. But Somalia has been a forgotten emergency for years.”
Not here!
The officials working on Somalia are trying to draw more attention to the country’s plight, which they feel has fallen into Darfur’s shadow. They have recently organized several trips, including one on Monday, for journalists to see for themselves.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the top United Nations official for Somalia: “The situation in Somalia is the worst on the continent.”
That situation has included floods, droughts, locusts, suicide bombers, roadside bombs and near-daily assassinations.
And yet, the place has hardly made my war dailies!
And disappeared just as quick.
United Nations officials said the recent round of plagues, natural and man-made, coupled with the residual chaos that has consumed Somalia for more than a decade, have put the country on the brink of famine. In the worst-hit areas, like Afgooye, recent surveys indicate the malnutrition rate is 19 percent, compared with about 13 percent in Darfur; 15 percent is considered the emergency threshold.
The officials, in making the comparison, were not trying to diminish the problems in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died from violence and disease since 2003. But they said they were concerned that the crisis here was increasingly urgent.
Unlike Darfur, where the suffering is being eased by a billion-dollar aid operation and more than 10,000 aid workers, Somalia is still considered mostly a no-go zone. Just last week, a Somali aid worker and a guard were shot to death at an aid distribution center in Afgooye. United Nations officials estimate that total emergency aid is under $200 million, partly because it is so difficult just getting food into the country.
Pirates lurking off the coast of Somalia have attacked more than 20 ships this year, including two carrying United Nations food. The militias that rule the streets — typically teenage gunmen in wraparound sunglasses and flip-flops — have jacked up roadblock taxes to $400 per truck. The transitional government last month jailed a senior official of the United Nations food program in Somalia, accusing him of helping terrorists, though he was eventually released.
United Nations officials now concede that the country was in better shape during the brief reign of Somalia’s Islamist movement last year.
Mr. Laroche: “It was more peaceful, and much easier for us to work. The Islamists didn’t cause us any problems.”
Oh, man, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Yup, and the U.S. had to run them out because they defeated our rotten, raping, murdering and thieving warlords that were backed by the CIA!
Mr. Ould-Abdallah called those six months, which were essentially the only epoch of peace most Somalis have tasted for years, Somalia’s “golden era.”
This is saddeneing!
The reign of the Islamists was a GOLDEN ERA -- and the U.S. smashed it!
Somalia’s ills have always come in waves, starting in 1991 when clan-based militias overthrew the central government and the country plunged into anarchy. That fighting, like the fighting today, disrupted markets, kept out aid shipments and led to rapid inflation of food prices. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people starved.
All brought to them by the United States!
How come we bring ruin with us wherever we go, readers?
The United States tried to come to the rescue in 1992, sending thousands of soldiers to Somalia to assist with humanitarian operations.
But American troops abruptly pulled out after Somali militiamen shot down two Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu in October 1993.
After that, the United States — and much of the rest of the world — basically turned its back on Somalia. But in the summer of 2006, the world started paying attention again after a grass-roots Islamist movement emerged from the clan chaos and seized control of much of the country.
The United States and Ethiopia, Somalia’s neighbor and rival, quickly labeled the Islamists a threat and accused them of harboring terrorists from Al Qaeda.
Inside Somalia, the Islamists were very popular, at least initially. But then they overplayed their hand and declared a holy war against Ethiopia in December 2006, which provoked a crushing Ethiopian response. American military commanders funneled key satellite imagery to Ethiopian troops as they rolled across the Somali border; American planes bombed fleeing Islamists. One American official said the operation was considered an antiterrorism success.
I get tired of the conventional lies of history that the NYT regurgitates!
Here Ethiopia was running in troops to get ready for the overthrow, but it was the Islamists who started it, according to the lead Zionist War Daily!
And I am more than tired of the "Al-CIA-Duh" lie!
The transitional government arrived in Mogadishu at the end of December. It has struggled ever since against an insurgency that is a mix of Islamist fighters, rival clans and profiteers who have made a fortune as a result of the anarchy, whether by importing expired baby formula or renting out former government land.
Abdi Awaleh Jama, an ambassador at large for the transitional government: “Those criminals are our biggest problem.”
Yeah, if you are anti-occupier or anti-puppet government, you are a criminal!
Pffffftttt!
The African Union promised to send 8,000 peacekeepers to help. But because of the focus on building a 26,000-strong force for Darfur, only 1,600 Ugandans have arrived. Clearly, some of Somalia’s problems are not the government’s fault. Neither is the drought-flood-drought cycle that has left an impenetrable crust of rock-hard silt over Somalia’s fields, causing the worst cereal harvest in 13 years.
But most Western diplomats agree that unless the transitional government reaches out to Islamist elements and becomes more inclusive, it will fail — like the 13 transitional governments that came before it.
A Western diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing diplomatic protocol:
“This government doesn’t control one inch of territory from the Kenyan border up to Mogadishu.”
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the warlord turned transitional president, recently forced out the prime minister and is looking to replace him with a leader who can bridge clan divides.
The Western diplomat: “This is basically the last chance.”
But the people in Afgooye’s squatter camps do not have a lot of faith.
Mohammed Ahmed, a shriveled 80-year-old retired taxi driver, said he was not especially religious:
“We want the Islamists back, but at least we had food.”
Yeah, they were not starving under the Islamists.
Add another war crime to the U.S. total.
That's what our best ally Ethiopia is quite good at:
"Separatist Rebels Accuse Ethiopia’s Military of Killing Civilians in Remote Region" by JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov. 19 — Separatist rebels fighting in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia accused the government on Monday of strafing nomads in recent days at a watering hole with helicopter gunships, killing up to a dozen civilians.
The government denied the claims of attacks, which would be a deepening of a conflict that until now has been confined largely to hit-and-run clashes between rebel soldiers and Ethiopian ground forces. But Western diplomats in Ethiopia said that the government had indeed used assault helicopters and that the war in the Ogaden was intensifying.
Abdirahman Mahdi, a spokesman for the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the leading rebel group in the area, said government helicopters attacked the nomads, who were noncombatants, near the village of Gurdumi several times since Thursday. Mr. Abdirahman, who is based in London, said he had spoken to field commanders who provided detailed information, including the names of several nomads killed next to their camels. He said the Ethiopians apparently attacked the watering hole because rebel soldiers had recently killed several government soldiers in an ambush nearby.
“The Ethiopians are turning to air power because they can’t face us on the ground,” Mr. Abdirahman said.
Col. Yasaf Adankegn, an Ethiopian military spokesman, said nothing could be further from the truth. “The O.N.L.F. has repeatedly misinformed the international community,” Colonel Yasaf said. “Nothing has been happening out there. There is no fighting. The rebels have been eradicated.”
These claims and counterclaims are similar to recent, conflicting reports by both sides, each claiming a string of victories. Last week, the government said it had killed 100 rebels. The rebels denied that, saying they had killed 700 government soldiers and allied militiamen.
A Western diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for attribution, said the government had recently moved several attack helicopters to the Ogaden, a desolate corner of eastern Ethiopia.
“Unfortunately, these reports are credible,” the diplomat said. “But whether the government is using the gunships to track down rebels or for reprisals against villages, we don’t know.”
The government recently expelled several aid organizations from the Ogaden, including the International Committee of the Red Cross. It accused Red Cross workers of being rebel spies. But earlier this month, the United Nations announced that it had worked out an agreement with the government to open field offices in the Ogaden to deal with rising malnutrition rates and poor access to water."
Expelling the Red Cross is never good!
That means Ethiopia wants to hide crimes.
