The Jamestown Foundation has a new article by Sunguta West on the targeting of aid agencies in Somalia. Aid groups in the country are increasingly being attacked and humanitarian operations have largely halted due to security concerns. The dangers of aid work come with the territory, but while most attacks against aid workers worldwide are robberies or mistaken identity, the attacks in Somalia, for political reasons, purposely strike against humanitarians.
According to Shaykh Muhammad: “The UN relief agencies took part in the war that resulted in the defeat of the Islamic Courts Union by giving arms, money and fuel to the forces ranged against the mujahideen… I urge the mujahideen to make relief agencies their main target because they are assisting the enemy. This struggle has started and is yet to be accomplished (Codka Nabadda Radio [The Voice of Peace], July 14; Garowe Online, July 14). [Emphasis Mine]
Insurgencies are contests for the minds and will of the population. In the eyes of insurgents, humanitarian organizations are competitors for the support of local populations. Thus, humanitarian NGOs and IGOs threaten to lose their century old, sacred position of neutrality.
Whether we like it or not, in insurgencies nobody is neutral.
Last week the Danes handed over World Food Programme (WFP) ship escorting duties to the Dutch. Since November, all ships carrying WFP aid have been escorted into Somali ports by European naval vessels (French, Danish, and now Dutch). Prior to the military escorts, three ships with WFP food aid were hijacked by pirates. In one case the crew was held for over 100 days. After the hijackings many shipping companies refused to carry aid into Somalia. Only the guarantee of military escorts allowed the Somali food aid to flow again.
The Somali pirates are a great example of “super empowered individuals“. Just a handful of lightly armed para-militaries were able to disrupt food aid feeding two million Somalis for months. If that is not power, I do not know what is.