generalspeaking

Some Surprise

"Kidnap has been the top risk in Dadaab, and the surrounding region, for a long time. It's not a surprise that it happened. But that this took place in the heart of the camp, that was a surprise." Senior aid staffer, Nairobi

The gunmen, now thought to be rogue elements of the Somalian national failure, and not al-Shabaab which has denied involvement, boldly made their abductions in mid-day, right in the centre of of one of the largest aid organizations' operations. Although the risk was always front-and-centre, humanitarian aid personnel are still in a state of denial and shock. They were, after all, held to be 'safe' where they were stationed.

"We thought it was just a rumour at first; there's always some report that someone's been attacked. But then it was confirmed and everyone's just all over the place", said one British staffer with an international charity, speaking from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Abductions, kidnappings take place because there's an ostensible reason for them to take place. Foreigners are fair game, and it's well known that there is wealth behind them.

Holding them to ransom, demanding large ransoms to free them profits the bold and the enterprising. And this abduction, while revealing the hostility felt by Somalians toward the foreigners (reflecting in fact what most of the repressed, indigent members of Muslim society feel toward interlopers, aliens, foreign elements) also reveals the determination to milk whatever is possible from their presence.

Much as the pirates off the coast of Somalia have been practising their chosen options: violently confronting, boarding and capturing foreign vessels and holding the crew and cargo to ransom. Most often paid handsomely for their efforts, enabling these renegades to live lives of comfortable plenitude, unlike the suffering of those living precariously under cross-fire assaults of the fanatic Islamist militants.

Who have insisted, despite the danger to civilians present in areas where al-Shebaab confronts the country's military, and despite the environmental disaster that has caused drought and a collapse of agriculture resulting in mass starvation, that people remain where they are. Those who have been able to, have headed, with their meagre possessions, to the border with Kenya, seeking charitable relief.

And it is at these relief camps where a myriad of international humanitarian groups, denied entry by al-Shebaab into Somalia, have been desperately attempting to deal with the basic needs of starving refugees. Now, two Spanish aid workers were kidnapped, the women forced to walk roughly 50 kilometres to the Somalia border from the camp, when the vehicle they were transported in broke down in muddy conditions.

Kenyan police set out on a land and air search for the women whose Kenyan driver had been shot and wounded. They cannot have been very adept at tracking. The work of those humanitarian groups is now in jeopardy. Medicins sans frontieres has pulled out its workers and others will follow. The transports that had been dispatched to aid weak, faltering refugees to reach the Dadaab camp have been suspended.

Refugees are arriving at the rate of a thousand daily, fleeing famine and war. They have little choice, with al-Shabaab absolutely and confoundingly refusing to allow Western aid into the territory. Humanitarian workers in Nairobi had warned the camp was being militarized from reports of arms being sold, young men recruited to join an anti-western militia.

MSF does not use armed guards anywhere in the world where it operates. "We are in contact with all the relevant authorities and are doing all we can to ensure the swift and safe return of our colleagues", the president of MSF in Spain, explained. Some things are explicable, can be explained, other forces within human nature that operate contrary to humanity are beyond explanation.

Labels: Agriculture, Human Relations, Islamism, Societal Failures

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, October 15, 2011