Competition for turf: Al Shabab insurgents stood guard in Mogadishu, Somalia, late last month. Deep instability inside Somalia is at the root of the piracy problem, says one Somalia analyst. Farah Abdi Warsameh/APFrom The Christian Science Monitor:
The world is not willing to allow this strategic nation to remain ungoverned. Can a coordinated effort create a stable government?
Johannesburg - With Islamist militias in control of much of the country, pirates using Somali coasts to attack commercial ships with ease, and mounting hunger among civilians, Somalia is a failed state begging for new ideas in 2009. US-backed Ethiopian troops who've been propping up an unpopular transitional government are now fleeing the country. Yet as the growing presence of European, American, Indian, and, soon, Chinese navies off the Somali coast show, the world is not willing to allow this strategic nation in the Horn of Africa – with its long coastline along key shipping routes – to remain ungoverned. One of the central questions for 2009: Can a coordinated international effort help create a lasting and stable government?
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