Somalia - Transitioning to peace
At its most recent peak of drought, famine and conflict, the UN refugee agency reported that more than 135,000 Somalis had fled their homes with a quarter of Somalia’s 7.5 million people estimated to be either internally displaced or living outside the country as refugees.
Compounding Somalia’s long-term devastation, 2011 saw the Horn of Africa country suffer from its worst drought in a century. UN estimates placed one third of the Somali population, or 3.2 million people, at risk from starvation as famine was declared in the country’s southern regions of southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle, as well as the capital Mogadishu.
After two decades without a functioning government, Somalia is slowly extricating itself from its war-ravaged past when violence, spawned by warlords and Islamic militants such as Al Shabaab, killed thousands and drove hundreds of thousands more from the country’s shattered towns and cities.
A turning point in the country’s fortunes came in August 2011 when troops from the UN-backed African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) and Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government drove the remaining Al Shabaab militants out of Mogadishu.
The liberation of Mogadishu from the control of the Al Shabaab by AMISOM and Somali national army troops has brought a period of relative peace not seen in the Somali capital since 1991. This has helped UN humanitarian agencies and their partners in their efforts to provide vital aid - some 184,000 displaced persons have sought refuge in the capital.
With UN-backed forces controlling over 90 percent of Mogadishu and a tentative peace established throughout the battered city, UN officials celebrated the event as an “extraordinary moment” of opportunity to strengthen the transitional Somali authorities as they worked to set up permanent democratic government structures by 20 August 2012.
Somalia’s Provisional Constitution was overwhelmingly approved on 1 August 2012 by a plenary session of the Somali National Constituent Assembly. The document provides a legal framework that will govern the workings of the new Somali federal institutions after 20 August 2012.
Until recently, many Somalis were caught between the ravages of conflict and dire humanitarian tragedies. “After the 20th of August, I expect Somalia to be more peaceful, more stable and more established in terms of democratic governance,” said Augustine P. Mahiga in a recent interview.
Source: UN News
- 305 reads
