Alex de Waal in the LRB Blog:
Europe, the United States and the African Union are focused on solving their problems in Somalia: terrorism, piracy, refugees. First and foremost, the SFG (Somali Federal Government) is an instrument for doing that. President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud doesn’t control his own security forces: he relies on AU ground troops and US aircraft. His defence minister needs special permission to visit security facilities along the coastline. He doesn’t control most of his budget, which is either directly in the hands of foreign agencies, or so closely managed by European donors that he has no discretion on spending. It’s a form of latter-day native administration: indirect colonial rule using a local proxy. Whatever his democratic credentials or personal sincerity, Hassan is a prisoner of circumstance, with very little latitude to address the fundamental problems facing his country.More here
As long as the SFG’s aims are defined as defeating al-Shabab on the battlefield and building a government on the model favoured by Somalia’s foreign sponsors, it has no chance of success. Hassan’s Western backers have not yet squared the circle of pouring money and guns into a client government to fight a counterinsurgency, and preventing that government from becoming rentierist, militaristic and corrupt.
