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Editorial
Monday, May 25, 2009
Reports that Kenyan youth might be targets of recruiters to fight with Somali extremists in that country’s worsening civil war should be sufficiently alarming to rattle authorities into action.
The accounts of Kenyan parents lamenting the loss of their sons to the al-Sabaab militia are doubly alarming because that movement’s leaders have made plain their hostility towards Kenya.
What happens in Somalia can, of course, not be ignored by Kenya. The two countries share a long border, there are long-established trade ties between the two nations, particularly in North Eastern province and many Kenyans trace their ethnic origins to Somalia.
Kenya has a clear self-interest in ensuring stability in Somalia. It must join other nations in the region in formulating a joint and aggressive regional response to the growing crisis in Mogadishu.
It is a fact that the extremist threat in Somalia is not homegrown. Islam in the Horn of Africa has for centuries followed the peaceful and tolerant Sufi traditions, and the extremist agitation of the sort whipped up by al-Shabaab appears to serve the interests of external extremist networks.
Leaders in the region must work to support the moderate administration in Mogadishu. They should bolster its efforts to recruit more moderate elements from the extremist camp and support it in putting down the al-Shabaab insurrection. Somalia’s neighbours, including Kenya, must work hard to cut off the flow of men and arms to the extremist group.
Yet no military solution will end the troubles in Somalia. In the end, only a concerted effort to revive that nation’s institutions of government and its schools will deal a fatal blow to extremism.
If the current situation where Somali youth can only look forward to a career in piracy or militia activity persists, that nation will continue to be a source of concern and a security threat to the entire region.