CONSENSUS BUILDS ON TOTAL EMBARGO ON SOMALIA AND NO FLY ZONE
The news that two plane loads of weaponry and ammunition being offloaded yesterday at the airport of Baidoa in Al Shabab controlled parts of Somalia has sent a further message to the powers involved in the fight against terrorism and militancy in this largely lawless nation at the Horn of Africa, that the time is now to act and to act decisively and without fear of the misguided opinions, loud as they maybe, of the global cry baby groups who once again fail to understand that they and their values too are under attack and they would not be spared by the militants.
For long have select members of the naval coalition fighting against the ocean terror unleashed by the Somali pirates on shipping along this crucial route to and from the Red Sea demanded that the Somali coastline needed to be put under a full embargo with permission for movements to be obtained from the coalition forces or else to be treated as hostile. Now these calls have been renewed for a full air embargo when news emerged through Kenyan military channels that two planes did manage to land inside Al Shabab territory bringing fresh supplies to the terrorists. Immediate allegations were made against Eritrea of being behind the move, which if found true would certainly pitch that Stalinesque country again into renewed confrontation with the IGAD group and might finally put the regime in Asmara into the crosshairs of military strategists plotting for regime change through a range of options available to them clearly now aided by having drones operate from not just inside Ethiopia but also able to launch them from Djibouti. While this may be interpreted as a hostile act by Eritrea, and might be prodding them to lash out, they would be ill prepared for a sustained aircampaign against them nor for seeing their port being blocked, should hostilities break out and spread.
An earlier article published here As Kenya goes into Somalia Afwerki sneaks off to Khartoum too gets additional relevance as both leaders are struggling for survival in the face of ever harsher living conditions, rising prices, spreading unemployment and a bloody and draconian rule. They might get backing though as proxies of their true godfathers who are fermenting trouble wherever they can, not shy using terrorism as a tool when it suits then and it is an open secret where they are based.
Meanwhile is Kenya faced with the dilemma to send warplanes deeper into Somalia to prevent such flights and either try to turn the planes back, force them to fly on to and land in Kenya for inspection or else bring such flights to an end in midair.
Whichever the case, our Kenyan brothers need our fullest support as they are doing the dirty work on the ground others were too shy to do and I am NOT talking of our Ugandan compatriots already fighting Al Shabab in their thousands from Mogadishu, and neither of our Burundian brothers in arms doing the same. Aerial surveillance and strike capabilities are welcome, much welcome in fact when used as it is hoped for, but barely enough considering the reports on the latest re-supplies coming in. Maybe these drones should be used against such targets too and the secondary explosions after a missile strike would be proof enough that ammunition and explosives have been hit, upholding a principle that whatever one can do to deny an enemy is adding further strength to our own cause. My thoughts are with the AMISON and Kenyan troops on the ground in Somalis, as well as the TFG units fighting alongside them, for a speedy and comprehensive conclusion of their present involvement.
