World Watch: Fighting terror in Somalia
Somalia has long been seen as a hotbed of terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, but analysts are coming to realize that fighting terrorism there means more than supporting military operations and nabbing suspects.
In a lawless country where warlords have largely supplanted the central government for the past 14 years, the United States has a delicate balancing act: cooperating with warlords to fight terrorism while trying to win over Somalis who don't believe terrorists lurk in the east African country and who increasingly believe the war on terrorism is really a war on Islam.
Since 2003, terrorist groups in the capital city of Mogadishu with links to al Qaeda have murdered foreign aid workers and assassinated Somalis working with counterterrorism efforts, according to a recent report from the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit research organization ("Counter-Terrorism in Somalia: Losing Hearts and Minds?").
When the country's transitional government, now based in neighboring Kenya, planned to relocate to Mogadishu earlier this year, terrorist groups vowed to mount an Iraqi-style insurgency. The transitional government has used those threats to push for a foreign intervention force to stave off the warlords, but few Somalis wish to see such a struggle. U.S.-backed counterterrorism efforts have had some success, capturing suspects and disrupting plots, but partnering with the warlords and local faction leaders has created resentment and hostility.
The Bush administration "risks evoking a backlash," according to the Crisis Group. Suliman Baldo, director of the group's Africa program, says the terrorist groups have been successful at manipulating public sentiment in a country where relations between Islam and Christianity are generally good and where both religions accommodate African traditions.
"In this type of environment, it's not easy for extremist groups to find a foothold," said Baldo. "So what makes that possible is exploitation of resentment against ruling classes and exploitation of international support of abusive elites and regimes and adapting the message to use these local factors to communities that would otherwise not listen to this message."
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