I just saw the NYTimes article about ethiopia and Somalia getting ready for another war. Quite apart from the religious angle involved (the Somalis are muslim, the Ethiopians christians), I have to ask: wny? The territory is largely desert and worthless for agriculture. Both countries are among the poorest on earth, and war will be reuinous to their ruined economies. Now, i can see the UN calling (in 4-6 months time) for UN troops to “keep the peace”; but i can’t imagine any nation being foolish enough to send troops into this hellhole. Why not lket them m,assacre eachother? Nobodt “nneds” the horn of Africa, nobody cares (least of all me). So, will this get any notice-or will it be another dreary tribal war, with lots of dead and nothing to show for.?
The longer anarchy lasts, the more likely it is that chaos spreads to the rest of Africa.
Right about now, Africa is a tinderbox. Extremeist religious groups, intertribal fighting, Military Dictatorships, plagues & famines creating mass migrations of refugees, lots of ex-Warsaw Pact weapons to muddy the waters, & topped off with a garnish of mixed indifference/cultural incomprehension from the rest of the World.
One spark, & all Hell gets loose.
And that doesn’t even touch the Piracy problem in the area. (No joke!)
The basic situation as I understand it is that Muslim militias are occupying the Somali capital and a whole chunk of the south of Somalia, which is not good news for a stable government in the country.
Ethiopia has sent a load of troops into Somalia (although they call them “military advisers”) to support the Somalian government, and the Muslim militants who are de facto in charge are threatening to force them out. And that’s not even mentioning the Eritrea angle…
It’s not a case of “we’re bored here in Africa, let’s have a war”. It’s Ethiopia not wanting their neighbouring nation to descend into further chaos, and understandably so.
Incidentally, the horn of Africa is not all desert by any means. Ethiopia is meant to be a very beautiful country. It’s on my top 10 list of places I want to visit, but sadly now is not the time, I fear…
Incidentally I’m not sure if you were being deliberately provocative or just ignorant, but this:
is pretty disingenuous. Plenty of people “nned” this part of the world - the 80 million odd who live in Ethiopia and Somalia, for one thing. It’s not in their interest for exteremists to take over a large chunk of the region.
Of course, if by “nobody cares” you mean “not many fat people in sweatpants sitting at PCs in the western world care” then I’ll grant that you may have a point.