Sir, – Your reporting of the recent suicide car bombing in Mogadishu which killed at least 79 citizens, many of whom were university students, and injured up to 150 bystanders (“Bomb attack in Somalia”, World News, December 29th) highlighted an egregious example of the barbaric values espoused by the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab. President Mohamed Farmajo was accurate in describing the movement as “never having done anything positive for the country, never having constructed a road, hospital or school”. The presence of al-Shabaab is a cancer at the heart of Somali society. It has conducted 13 major attacks since 2015, in addition to spates of suicide bombings and shellings, resulting in thousands of civilian deaths
While this recent atrocity has been condemned by the secretary general of the UN, only last week, the UN Security Council approved a reduction in the UN peacekeeping troop numbers by 1,000 and a total phase-out by 2022. This reduction is further exacerbated by threatened cuts in the US Africa command, based both in Somalia and Djibouti, which may also involve a small UK unit. Since much of the heavy lifting security-wise is carried out by the UN contingent, and as the first personal vote election in decades is due to be held in 2020, the need for additional military and police presence to offset a resurgent al-Shabaab becomes imperative, especially as it opposes all forms of democratic legitimacy.
There is a shared interest to be proactive, in partnership with diaspora Somali communities, in safeguarding Somalia’s vulnerable democracy through security support. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOSEPH MULLEN,
(Former UN and
EU adviser to Somalia),
Eastbourne,
UK.