The Somali Peninsula

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud  In my life time I have witnessed a country come into being in 1960 with the most hopeful beginning and arguably the best prospects in Africa. Then unravel in a fashion rarely matched in speed, ferocity, destructive impact, and ruinous legacy.  Of The nine presidents Somalia had since independence, only two presided over a fairly coherent and relatively democratic country. They were the first and second President of the first Republic (1960-1969): Aden Abdulahi Osman and Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke. They were the “First Democrats” in Africa.  The third President, General Mohamed Siad Barre, seized power by the sword, military coup, in 1969, and left power by the sword two decades later. The General fled abroad, leaving behind a people mired in messy and bloody civil war and a country in ruin. That pretty much sums up the fate and legacy of the Second Republic.  The last six presidents were in search of a country, the Third Republic. A few thought they had a

By its very definition disinformation is a weapon of war. It is designed to destabilize and weaken an enemy. In earlier times, it was dominated by states and depended on expensive, secretive, and jealously guarded human intelligence and security operatives and technological gadgets. Coupled with a great deal of discipline, care, and discretion. However, the latest communication and technological innovations and their widespread accessibility have made disinformation a weapon of choice not only for states but also for all kinds of non-state entities, including organized criminal networks, kleptocratic cartels, extremist fringe groups, cults, cabals, and opportunistic peddlers of deceitful propaganda and hate.  Disinformation has become a cheap, easily accessible, and insidious weapon, the potential targets, reach and destructive impacts of which have been dramatically and exponentially increased. It can be launched from any where any time by anyone with internet and a smart phone.

  What can grow in Ukraine but  can’t in Africa? Why is a continent whose strategic assets power global wealth unable to feed its own people?  What kind of peace could the African Union broker between Russia and Ukraine but couldn’t in the epidemic of terror & carnage raging in its birthplace & permanent abode of residence?  Why has human freedom utterly forsaken the abode of first humans? It has gone where? Where has it found asylum and permanent home? The teeming youth perishing in the inhospitable Sahara or being entombed alive in the dark depths of the Mediterranean and Red Sea in droves are going where? The African youth are chasing what in their desperate and endless journey up north?  It’s true that Africa is a vast and immensely variegated Continent. There are some bright spots where credible and demonstrable signs of stability, democracy and accountability are evident. However, the plight of the vast majority of countries and peoples across the Continent remains bleak.