Somalia, Kenya and the African Union

Having just been to pick up a few more sick and injured soldiers out of Somalia I thought I would reflect a little on the ongoing military situation in this troubled little corner of the world. I was involved in military casevacs very quick; in fact, my first medevac with AMREF FD was retrieving injured Kenyan soldiers out of Kismayo on the Southern coast of Somalia. It has been fascinating to watch the African Union, the Kenyan forces and the UN combining their efforts to bring something resembling stability to the region. I’ve seen the results of this conflict in many different spheres: -

 I’ve seen the vast refugee camps of Daadaab, retrieved injured Kenyans out of Kismayo, treated African Union troops in Liboi in North Kenya, visited the Somalian army training camps in Uganda, seen the aftermath of the UN compound bombing and a myriad of other terrorist attacks in Mogadishu, chased US drone aircraft along the coast and listened to friends recounting stories of terrifying hostage situations, piracy payoffs and a load more I shouldn’t probably know about. It’s phenomenally complex.

I didn’t realise how controversial the Kenyan presence in Kismayo actually is. The ruling on the African Union interventions is that only remote African nations can form part of the armed forces. Therefore it can’t be seen to be an invasion by a bordering country.  For example, the Ethiopian troops backing the Transitional Government, really shouldn’t be there under the rules of the AU and have only now pulled out completely. The occupation in the south was more of a unilateral decision by Kenya that the AU and the rest of the world chose to ignore (or actively assist in by levelling the Al Shabaab positions using remote drones). You couldn’t blame them for taking the matter into their own hands. The constant flow of refugees,

the insecurity along the border and piracy along the coast was really starting to piss the Kenyans off. No one was really doing much about it and then there was a high profile abduction from Lamu by Somali pirates which scared off the tourist trade. I’m told, that was it. Abducting people from within Kenya was simply not on and the army was mobilised and advanced into southern Somalia as far north as Kismayo (there may also be a lot of mineral wealth there too, how lucky!). For most of my time here it has been pretty stable but there has been more action recently.

I’m not a military doctor. I’ve never experienced anything like this before. But I’ve got more used to the accounts of IEDs, sniper fire and skirmishes. I’ve got more used to our crazy low level flights across the sea into ‘Moga-disco!’ I’ve developed a real affection these African troops. Whenever we arrive they are smiling and courteous and are doing the absolute best for their comrades, whether they be Ugandan, Burundian or Kenyan. And my word, they are tough cookies. It’s strange seeing these brave smiling faces with injuries that are causing severe pain, and then their relief when we get their pain under control and they know they are getting out. I know the medics are doing their best but from what I know of our capabilities in places like Camp Bastion, I know that these guys won’t have anywhere near the chance of survival after trauma that our troops can expect in places like Afghanistan.

It’s all seems to be getting interesting again. There was the fantastic news that the two Medicin San Frontieres aid workers have just been released after a couple of years held captive. The so-called father figure of the Al-Shabaab and jihadist ideology in Somalia, Hassan Dahir Aweys, the chap with the fetching bright ginger goatie, has recently surrendered himself. There is a lot of speculation as to why he has done this but the overriding theory seems to be that Al-Shabaab is becoming split in its ideology and Aweys is fearing for his life. He has been rather vocal denouncing many in Al-Shabaab

A bullet through the tibia and fibula, ouch.

for "acting in a manner unbecoming of upright jihadists". I am curious to know where ethics and a code of conduct comes in to it but such talk seems to have been his undoing. There seems to have been a hostile takeover by the Afghan-trained Ahmed Abdi Godane and there has been a string of assassinations from within. People are saying they may be on a course of self-destruction but that sounds rather optimistic to me. It sounds like just another tale of one warlord usurping another to me; same old same old. But stories filter through that the new wave are more interested in martyrdom than power or politics. Apparently foreign jihadists are being rejected, or being told to do' undesirable work' and going home. If that’s all true, then hopefully they will manage to extinguish themselves pretty soon. If that’s true, then those men seeking death and glory but with no strategy for seizing power, no interest in winning popular support, and fractionating themeslves from foreign supporters, will get their death wish and go out with a bang. Unfortunately the bang will involve more civilians and the peacekeepers with the AU, UN, Bancroft, RMSI, and AMREF FD picking up the pieces.