Islamists take control of Somali city

The government of Somalia suffered another setback yesterday, losing control of the city of Baidoa to an Islamic insurgent movement known as Shebab (or al-Shabaab), meaning “the youth.” Baidoa was the last city fully under control of the Somali government, though the government’s grip over their own country was so weak that they actually met in the neighboring nation of Djibouti.

Shebab’s takeover of Baidoa wasn't a big surprise. The Somali government was only able to control even a portion of the country because the support of Ethiopian troops who rolled into Somalia in 2006, driving Shebab and another Islamist group, the Union of Islamic Courts, from Baidoa and the capital city Mogadishu. But the Ethiopians grew tired of their military mission and abruptly pulled out at the end of 2008, leaving behind only a small contingent of troops from the African Union who were not prepared to battle the Islamists.

According to a former government minister interviewed by the Voice of America though, the residents of Baidoa may welcome the return of Shebab. Former Education Minister Mohammed Ali Ahmed said that the people in Baidoa were tired of the presence of Ethiopian troops and the ineffective Somali government, and that as long as Shebab respected their elders, the takeover of the city should go peacefully. Shebab, meanwhile, said that they would soon implement sharia law (a code of justice based on a strict reading of the Koran), but so long as the people in Baidoa respected the law, there would not be problems.

And while we are on the topic of Somalia, the Canadian news magazine MacClean's published: “This Cabbie Hunts Pirates” this week, the story of Abdiweli Ali Taar, a Toronto cab driver turned coast guard commander in the Puntland region of northern Somalia.

Mr. Taar heads up the SomCan (for Somali-Canadian) Coast Guard, the country’s only line of homegrown defense against the pirates that prowl the waters off Somalia. His fleet consists of one seaworthy trawler, turned patrol ship and 200-odd, poorly paid militiamen.

It's an interesting story that gives you some insight into the complex nature of the fight off the coast of Somalia - for example, many of today's pirates were former coast guardsmen, lured away by the better pay of piracy. Mr. Taar said that fact gets to the root of the problem in Somalia - people turning to crime because of the lack of any legal jobs paying a decent wage. “I told the UN, look, if you want to help Somalia, the pirates are peanuts compared to the problems we have,” Taar said, adding that if the world’s navies took the money they are spending patrolling off the coast of Somalia and spent it on development projects ashore, it would likely end the piracy problem.