Bad News about Africa

January 2, 2007 Tom Fenton The snippets of news about Somalia that American network television has been presenting these days are a sad reminder of how poorly Americans are informed by their mainstream media. There is no context, no background. Viewers, if they pay any attention at all to these second hand reports that were mostly cobbled together in newsrooms far from the scene of action, are left without a clue about what is really happening in that far corner or Africa, and why. That’s a pity, because what is happening there could become another big problem for the United States. Americans need to take a cold, hard, look at what their government is doing in sub-Saharan Africa and what may be the possible consequences. The latest outbreak of fighting in Somalia is more than just an isolated clan or ethnic conflict. It is one of a number of local conflicts in an inhospitable and sparsely settled region of Africa, from Darfur to the Red Sea, that could eventually lead to a broader war. Some of these conflicts go back for decades. There were religious and ethnic conflicts in Sudan and between Ethiopia and Somalia when I first went to Africa as a foreign correspondent 40 years ago. But the roots of these conflicts run far deeper. They can also be seen as part of a broad historical movement – a rise of expansionist Islam in sub-Saharan Africa that was temporarily halted by British imperialists in the late Nineteenth Century. It is now on the rise again. One of the first signs appeared in 1991 when the Islamic government of Sudan gave temporary refuge to Osama Bin Laden. Then American marines went to the aid of a starving population in Somalia and suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of tribal warlords in 1993. The United States turned tail and left Somalia in the hands of the warlords. It became a lawless land that was reportedly used as a safe haven by the Islamic terrorists who blew up the American Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. Since then, tension has been rising in the region. When the United States chased al Qaeda fighters out of Afghanistan in late 2001, Pentagon planners feared they might establish new bases in Africa. The Bush Administration quietly sent small numbers of special forces to the sub-Saharan region to equip and train local government forces to deal with the potential threat. It also deployed a 1200-strong Combined Task Force in Djibouti, within easy striking distance of both the Red Sea shipping lanes and the restless countries of the region, including America’s predominantly Christian ally Ethiopia, as well as that country’s enemies, Eritrea and Somalia. All of this was done without fanfare while the American public’s attention was fixed on Afghanistan and Iraq. After the 1993 debacle, Washington had no appetite for going back into Somalia, but the CIA apparently poured money into a clumsy, covert attempt to create an alternative Somali government out of a collection of mutually hostile local warlords. That didn’t work too well. Last June, an alliance of militant Islamic Somalis that calls itself the Union of Islamic Courts accomplished what nobody else had been able to do. It chased the warlords out of the capital Mogadishu, and most of the rest of the country, and restored a rough and ready Islamic brand of law and order after fifteen years of civil war. The people of Mogadishu were for the most part relieved to have a functioning government, even if it was puritanically Islamic. The Bush Administration was not. The Pentagon’s Plan B was apparently what we have just seen. Ethiopia’s armed forces, trained by the United States, swept into Somalia along with a small transitional government force and installed a puppet government in Mogadishu. That might be called a success for Washington if it were the end of the story. But it is not over yet. The transitional government’s forces seem too weak to hold the capital, let alone the rest of the country. Efforts are now being made to send in an African peacekeeping force, and the sooner that can happen, the better. Since Ethiopia is Somalia’s traditional enemy, the longer it remains in the country, the more the Somalis will resent a foreign (mostly Christian) army and the government it is propping up. Guns are coming out of closets. The old clan militias are back in Mogadishu, and militants linked to al Qaeda’s branch in Iraq are calling on Muslims to go to the aid of the Somalis. There are already early signs of an insurgency against the newly installed government in Mogadishu. There is also the danger that Eritrea, which had been sending arms and men to the Union of Islamic Courts, could be drawn into open warfare with Ethiopia. In addition, the several million ethnic Somalis who live in Ethiopia and neighboring Kenya could also be caught up in a broader conflict. If this happens, what will the American task force in nearby Djibouti do? Does the Pentagon have a Plan C? It’s all very complicated, so it might be a good idea if the American networks spent a little less time on such things as Americans who risked their lives in the dangerous sport of winter mountain climbing, and more on what is happening in Africa. Even if that would not be good for their ratings, it could be good for their country. Send us your thoughts on Tom Fenton's Journal at theworld@pri.org Tom Fenton Essayist Tom Fenton, whose long career as a foreign correspondent for CBS News covered more than three decades of world events, continues to follow international news from his base in London. He is the author of "Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News and the Danger to Us All."