When violence broke out in Somalia's battered capital this summer, cynics called it "business as usual." Once again, they claimed that the warring Somalis were embroiled in an incomprehensible clan struggle and that the international community should stay away and let them get on with it.
I could not disagree more. We are at a critical juncture here, and the international community must fully engage.
This is not a classic civil war but an externally funded attempt to overthrow a legitimate, recognized government. President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected by a parliament specially expanded to include opposition members who wanted to be involved in the U.N.-brokered peace process. Ahmed, who ran Mogadishu in 2006 under the Islamic Courts Union, has attended the U.N. Security Council as well as summits of the African Union and League of Arab States.
In contrast, those who attacked Mogadishu in May are extremists with no common agenda except to seize power by force. They include individuals on the U.N. Security Council's list of al-Qaeda and Taliban members and a few hundred experienced fighters from other areas of Africa, as well as Arabs and Asians. While the world focuses elsewhere, groups of foreign extremists are trying to take control of a strategically placed country. Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa and borders international maritime routes as well as regional powers Kenya and Ethiopia. Somalis and others need to ask whether these foreign fighters are working to provide a better administration, peace and employment -- or are using Somalia to further their agenda of spreading international violence.
Such brazen threats to Somalia's legitimate government should be a concern. In April, the U.N. Security Council condemned such coups; the African Union made similar pronouncements at its 1999 and 2000 summits, and many nations have spoken out against the recent military takeover in Honduras. The regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development has taken the lead in supporting the Ahmed government, and the United States, France and Norway are among the countries that have condemned the attempted coup.
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