In late January, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon announced a review of Somalia’s weapons ban, which has been in effect since 1992. The new plan is to unhinge Somalia’s military potential, but not for altruistic purposes. A steady momentum has been building up to this moment.
Back in July 2012, the The Guardian reported that the UK had delivered more weapons shipments to Somalia than it did to Israel. In September 2012, Egypt’s new Muslim Brotherhood leaders pledged to train the Somali ground and air forces. During the same period, Turkey expressed its interest in arming and outfitting the new Somali military.
Earlier today, the United States reiterated its call for an end to the Somalia arms embargo, which it helped to instate over twenty years ago. Backing the call to end the embargo is the UN Ambassador for Somalia Idd Beddel Mohamed, who admitted to Reuters reporters that warlords now make decisions in Somali Parliament.
There are no Somali warlords that threaten peace and stability in Somalia. They are normal citizens now, members of parliament. The embargo must be lifted. -Idd Beddel Mohamed via Reuters
It’s difficult to take this call seriously, especially when Somali forces were known to frequently sell government small arms to insurgents just two years ago..
The Shebab they buy it from the market. The big military officers, they sell their ammunitions and guns in bulk, but the small soldiers can’t sell their weapons unless they are not going back to barracks. -Farah (weapons dealer) via the Guardian
With little guarantee that Somalia’s weapons will remain in the hands of the country’s fledgling armed forces, there remains little political incentive to remove the embargo. The only remaining incentive for Somalia’s eager embargo opponents is to sell weapons. But with Somalia lacking any available cash to fund its future armaments, it leaves only one option remaining – natural resources.
By supplying Somalia with weapons in exchange for its natural resources, its partners meet two pressing objectives with one action. The energy-strapped UK will be able to get precious fuel (uranium, oil, gas, or whatever else they prefer) in exchange for the same outdated Yugoslav-era small arms that NATO provided the fledgling Iraqi military with. The Turks on the other hand, can dump their own outdated weapons in exchange for new ones manufactured by their booming defense industry.
More importantly, the Somali government’s international partners are looking to shore up the new military against potential domestic rivals. Traditional local allies of the West like the regional states of Somaliland and Puntland, have not completely given up their pipe dreams of autonomy alongside the Mogadishu regime. They may attempt to block, or outright resist any attempts at exploration based on contracts which are likely now pending between the Somali government and foreign firms. Supporting multiple independent armies inside Somalia was the transitional-era policy of Washington, but it’s much more convenient to support one strongman and to empower him against any forms of dissident.
While defense industries across the US and Europe are bracing for huge budget cuts amid a spiraling global economic crisis, they’re also eying new markets in the developing world. Reliable buyers in the Persian Gulf are also tightening their budgets, opening Somalia for further inspection by the global war industry.
Somalia does not need a new influx of weapons, and it is too young to maintain a military of its own. Even Lebanon, 22 years after its civil war had ended, is still patrolled in part by international peacekeepers, which casts doubts on the international community’s latest direction in the Somalia saga.
Whatever the motives may be for Washington’s latest gesture on Somalia, there are privy death merchants from Istanbul to New York seeking a boost in their sales, and they eagerly await Somalia’s first order.
{DN Staff Writers}
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