Ahmed Shaaban (Mogadishu, Cairo)
Somalia is witnessing a significant deterioration in the humanitarian situation as a result of famine and drought, in addition to the escalation of terrorist crimes in light of the continued operations carried out by the Al-Shabaab movement affiliated with Al-Qaeda, which exacerbated the suffering of the Somali people who have been living in bad conditions for years.
Last week, Somalia was subjected to a new wave of assassinations in the capital, Mogadishu, carried out by the “Al-Shabaab” movement, where 5 people were killed, including a prominent preacher and tribal leader, a former general in the army, and two other people working in the land transport sector.
The wave of assassinations comes amid mounting fears of its expansion to include civilian and government targets, and hit-and-run operations between the army and the movement, as army units managed to eliminate 200 terrorist elements in the provinces of “Hirshebeli and Galmudug” in the south and center of the country.
Dr. Amani Al-Taweel, advisor to Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo and an expert in African affairs, said: Somalia suffers from the fragility of political and social conditions, due to terrorism and famine for a long time.
Dr. Amani Al-Taweel confirmed in statements to Al-Ittihad that Somalia needs regional and international support to confront the terrorist “Al-Shabab” movement, within the framework of a well-articulated plan, because Somalia is one of the countries that are candidates for the rise of the “Al-Shabab” movement and its increasing danger.
The expert in African affairs stressed the need to support Somalia economically and logistically, and to deal with the “Al-Shabab” organization, not only in terms of security, but also culturally, educationally and in the media, so as not to attract new members to the organization and expand its capabilities, and to tighten control over the outlets to prevent it from arming.
Dr. Al-Taweel stressed the need to maintain security in the Red Sea region and the Horn of Africa, and warned that desertification, warming, and drought afflicting Somalia worsen conditions, and is considered one of the security and humanitarian threats, pointing to Al-Shabab’s control of water resources and their use among their weapons against the population and the government.
The United Nations recently launched a warning of the danger of a major famine in Somalia, stressing that the process of distributing humanitarian aid allows Somalia to avoid a new disaster that may be worse than the famine that occurred in 2011, which claimed the lives of 260,000 people, more than half of whom were children under the age of five.
For his part, Ambassador Salah Halima, deputy of the Egyptian Council for African Affairs, considered that fighting the terrorist “Al-Shabaab” movement, security, military and ideological, is a priority for President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, noting that the assassinations that occur are a reaction as a result of the increasing activity of the Somali army.
In statements to Al-Ittihad, Ambassador Halima pointed out the importance of relying on the Arab role in supporting and aiding Somalia, noting the Arab role in supporting Somalia to confront terrorism and the deteriorating humanitarian conditions, work to improve them and support development efforts by providing humanitarian aid.
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