Fresh victims of the bloody war on terror

There was a House of Commons debate on Tuesday on the situation in the Horn of Africa introduced by Tory MP Mark Pritchard.

In his speech the MP levelled many accusations at countries including Iran for promoting instability in Somalia and Eritrea.

To me Pritchard seemed to be encouraging yet another front in that so-called "war on terror."

It is undeniable that there is massive instability, violence and loss of life in Somalia, particularly in the south around Mogadishu. And instability leads to insecurity and human rights abuses, as a recent Amnesty International report highlighted.

But it's essential to understand the colonial legacies that lie behind such conflicts.

Only Ethiopia escaped the ravages of late-19th century colonisation in the Horn of Africa, maintaining its independence during the scramble by European powers desperate for a slice of the continent - although an Italian invasion in 1936 saw Mussolini's fascist forces occupy the entire country.

Somalia, Sudan, Kenya and Uganda were all colonised and sliced up during the arbitrary line-drawing on maps at the 1884 Congress of Berlin. Later they became the subject of horse trading by the imperial powers at the Versailles conference at the end of WWI. The process was repeated at the end of WWII after the Axis powers were defeated.

Following independence, the cold war was played out in this part of Africa. Vast quantities of armaments were shipped in by the Soviet Union and the United States during the conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia.

In a sense the current instability in Somalia and Eritrea, which gained independence from Ethiopia, stems directly from this period.

Somalia's crisis has forced tens of thousands of people to flee. Today over 100,000 refugees live in camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, while others make the perilous and risky crossing of the Red Sea into Yemen or take their chance with people traffickers in a desperate bid to reach Europe.

The transitional government in Somalia in reality only controls a small part of the country around Mogadishu and it is waging a bloody conflict with al-Shabaab and other groups which Western intelligence agencies claim are linked to al-Qaida.

Washington has now decided to increase its support to the transitional government, creating mounting fears over human rights in the country - particularly in an Amnesty report published this week.

It quite rightly points out that the conflict poses a threat to the safety, rights and livelihood of Somali civilians. It also asserts that all sides in the conflict have committed serious violations of international law and human rights abuses.

The UN imposed an arms embargo on Somalia in 1992 but this has not had any appreciable effect in reducing access to military equipment, mainly because of broad exemptions covering weapons designated for the African Union mission in Somalia and technical assistance to the transitional government.

Amnesty recommends that all supplies of weapons be ended, including military and security equipment and financial assistance for the purpose of weapons to the transitional government until it's in a position to protect the human rights of Somalians.

Amnesty's approach is markedly different from that of the West, which latter appears to be encouraging military activity in Somalia as part of a proxy war against alleged "allies" of al-Qaida. There are, however, cooler heads which are calling for an approach that involves supporters of the Islamic forces.

In an Independent on Sunday article last September Africa expert Daniel Howden pointed out that 1.5 million people have been displaced by the conflict, making it the worst humanitarian crisis in the world with half of the population in need of assistance.

Howden also noted that after the US-supported military intervention by Ethiopia in 2006 the Islamic Courts Union, which had received mass support from the people, was dissipated and replaced by the more fundamentalist al-Shabaab grouping.

He depicted al-Shabaab as essentially a nationalist movement fighting for control of Somalia and he argued that any long-term peace must involve them.

To the north, Eritrea's border dispute with Ethiopia rumbles on. The fighting between Eritrea and Ethiopia had already cost 100,000 lives when it was referred to the International Court of Arbitration, which found in Eritrea's favour. Ethiopia's refusal to accept its verdict will likely cause further bloodshed and killing.

Despite this, the UN security council has imposed mandatory sanctions on arms, finance and travel on Eritrea to isolate the country and ratchet up the tension in the region.

The continuing crisis in the Horn of Africa and Yemen is in part a product of the absurd, obsessive "war on terror" fought since 2001.

It's time for a serious reassessment of the whole Western strategy - before the horrors of Iraq and Afghanistan are visited on yet more people.

corbynj@parliament.uk

Jeremy Corbyn is Labour MP for Islington North.