Political Rifts Deepening in Somalia

On Tuesday, Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed appointed a new prime minister, but the previous prime minister is refusing to accept his dismissal and is backed by the country's Parliament.

On Monday the Parliament backed Nur Hassan Hussein, who has been prime minister for about 13 months. But the president named Mohamed Mohamud Guled as the new prime minister because he's a close ally of the transitional federal government, the new Somali premier. It is a move "certain to deepen the political impasse in a country already struggling with an Islamist revolt, a refugee crisis and rampant lawlessness that has fueled awave of piracy off the Horn of Africa."

Heightening Tension

The move by Ahmed also has caused concerns from neighboring Ethiopia, which which has been protecting the Somali government with troops. Ethiopia recently announced it would withdraw its troops by the end of this month, which will leave the government vulnerable to Islamic insurgents, who began a brutal insurgency in 2007.

United Nations officials are now in crisis mode, calling high-level meetings in East Africa and New York to address piracy and the greater Somali problems. Some U.N. officials are pushing to send in peacekeepers, but no countries are rushing to offer troops.

Pirate Hunting

A number of international warships equipped with high-tech tools like radar and long-range cannons are now patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

An Italian officer said that going after them in a 485-foot-long destroyer, bristling with surface-to-air missiles and torpedoes, was like “going after someone on a bicycle with a truck.”

But international law in the seas is restricting some countries in their hunts for the pirates. Several times this year, the Danish Navy captured men they suspected to be pirates, but they had to drop them on shore because their government decided it did not have jurisdiction.

Vice-Admiral Gerard Valin, the commander of the French naval operation in the Indian Ocean, said the piracy will only be defeated by a strong government in Somalia.

Attack the Somali pirates?

While the Pentagon defended international military action against the Somali pirates today, and India also said that they will expand their offensives (after successfully blowing up one of the pirate ships in the Gulf of Aden), the pirates themselves -- from northern coastal towns like Haradhere, Eyl and Bossaso -- seem content with their efforts toward a better life.

New Somali businesses are actually thriving through the use of the $30 million in ransoms they've obtained from the 95 hijackings this year. And the treatment of hostages seems surprisingly well, by "hiring caterers on shore to cook spaghetti, grilled fish and roasted meat that will appeal to Western palates."

So is this a case of mere ruthless Islamic terrorist thuggery in a country where the life expectancy is 46 years, or a simple case of natural selection, where men are taking advantage of the millions of dollars in transported goods being shipped just off the coast of their country, one of the poorest in the world.

"Regardless of how the money is coming in — legally or illegally — I can say it has started a life in our town," said Shamso Moalim, a 36-year-old mother of five in Haradhere.

"Our children are not worrying about food now, and they go to Islamic schools in the morning and play soccer in the afternoon. They are happy."

Situation Elsewhere

But outside of these pirate villages, people are experiencing some of the worst conditions in all of Africa.

Without a functioning government since 1991, United Nations officials who specialize in Somalia said the country had higher malnutrition rates, more current bloodshed and fewer aid workers than Darfur -- often considered the most dire humanitarian crisis worldwide.

In some of the worst areas in the country, like Afgooye, recent surveys said the malnutrition rate is 19 percent, compared with about 13 percent in Darfur. The UN considers 15 percent to be the emergency threshold.

The UN also concedes that Somalia was in better shape during the brief reign of the country's Islamist movement in 2007, considered by many as Somalia's "golden years," but which was overthrown with the help of U.S. dollars.

The total amount of U.S. humanitarian assistance committed to Somalia in the 2006 and 2007 fiscal years exceeded $95 million, USAID said. And Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice pledged an additional $16.575 million in early 2008.

But in comparison to the amounts that the U.S. has given to Sudan and eastern Chad, these numbers are paltry. In the fiscal year 2008, the U.S. gave $1.27 billion in humanitarian aid to these neighboring areas.

An end or a beginning?

With the recent capture of a Saudi oil tanker worth more than $100 million, and with hunting grounds for more treasure reaching about 1 million square miles (roughly four times the size of Texas) these small-time crooks may be encouraged to turn their modest efforts into a full-time, well-funded endeavor. And perhaps the international community will recognize that the 11 ships attacked over the last week is not a cry for military action but a cry to save a country from its impending doom.