Somalia is complex. The situation there seems incomprehensible and hopeless. The logical response, then, is to wash our hands of it and simply try to contain the seemingly intractable problems that characterize basically stateless Somalia in hopes that they do not bleed beyond its borders. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the United Nations’ Special Representative for Somalia, rejects this fatalistic approach in an op-ed in The New York Times. A sample:
When violence broke out in Somalia’s battered capital this summer, cynics called it “business as usual.” Once again, they claimed that the warring Somalis were embroiled in an incomprehensible clan struggle and that the international community should stay away and let them get on with it.
I could not disagree more. We are at a critical juncture here, and the international community must fully engage.
He is short on the concrete details as to how this should be accomplished. But it strikes me as a message worth hearing. We cannot simply give up on Somalia nor should we.