#dnaEdit: Terror sub-text

The dastardly Al-Shabaab attack, Somalia’s Islamist group, at the Garissa University Campus in Kenya killing 147 students, almost all of them non-Muslims, is part of the jihadi flare-ups raging in West Asia and northern Africa. The context is made clear by the Al-Shabaab when it claimed responsibility for the massacre as they attributed the reason for the attack to the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia. The troops are helping the government there to fight the Islamists. This skewed reason — of course — does not hold. Murderers’ rationalisations cannot be given any credence because cold-blooded massacres cannot be rationalised. The Islamist groups, whether in Somalia or elsewhere, have to be fought relentlessly. Determined jihadists have to be countered with equal, if not more fierce and committed, opposition to their project of violence.

Kenya cannot tamely withdraw from Somalia and let the country be overrun by the Islamist group because Al-Shabaab poses a clear danger to the neighbourhood. This is evident from the fact that one of the four gunmen is a radicalised Kenyan Muslim youth, son of an official. The Kenyan government is rightly concerned about the radicalisation of its young Muslims and the resultant home-grown terrorism. Muslims in Kenya constitute about 11 per cent of the population, while Christians are 82 per cent. It would be difficult for Kenya to ignore fanatics gaining power in neighbouring Somalia.

The trouble in Somalia has been brewing for nearly a quarter century now, starting with the stark famine of the early 1990s. Political instability has plagued the country ever since, leading to a rise in piracy and jihadi terrorism. It is a poor country that has been sucked into the whirlpool of violence. Somalia is a classic instance of a failed State. Failed States cannot be left to their own devices. given the likelihood of the disorder and breakdown spreading into the neighbouring countries. It has become imperative for Kenya and the African Unity forces to retrieve Somalia from chaos in order to maintain peace and stability in that region. 

The phenomenon of Al-Shabaab cannot be subsumed under the general rubric of global jihad. Al-Shabaab might have been inspired by the al-Qaeda, but the ideological connection does not help in dealing with the challenges posed by the Somalian group. Al-Shabaab is the expression of Somalian internal turmoil and it has to be resolved before there could be peace in the region. There was a time when American troops landed there to control the situation, which openly made things worse. The troops had to quietly withdrew from Somalia.

It will be for the Somalian political class to restore order in the country. It is the internecine warfare among the war-lords which had led to the emergence of jihadi groups like Al-Shabaab. Something similar had happened in Afghanistan in the 1990s. It is because of the warring factions that the Taliban emerged. The present regime in Mogadishu, which has the backing of the African Union and the US, will have to address the economic deprivation of the people as part of the strategy to restore stability. Countering terrorist or jihadi groups in itself will not ensure stability. It was the failure of the internal community to adequately respond to the deathly famines in Somalia, in 1992 and 2010-12, which killed 220,000 and 258,000 people, respectively. If a country is allowed to starve, anarchy is sure to follow. The international community cannot ignore the plight of Somalia. It will not be possible for the African Union to provide adequate economic aid to Somalia. The developed nations will have to step up their levels of assistance.