African Studies
Utafiti: Journal of African Perspectives
Call for Papers: Utafiti is inviting you to submit your manuscript – any topic in the humanities - for consideration in the next issues.
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Somalia continued to struggle to be a country and remained marred in conflict and internal division. The northern self-declared state of Somaliland retained stability and steady economic growth despite drought and other problems. The south-central part remained highly insecure and saw diverse regional political units asserting their autonomy, with the Somali Federal Government (sfg) in Mogadishu nominally keeping the fledgling federal institutions and national army together. There was some improvement in building governance structures. sfg president Mohamed Abdullahi remained in position and retained the hesitant confidence of the international (donor) community. But the territorial-institutional expansion of the sfg was slow, and large areas remained under the control of the Islamist terror movement ‘Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahiddeen’, which continued its violent course as usual, offering no new political ideas or compromise solutions. Hundreds of people again fell victim to its lethal violence. The au mission to Somalia (amisom) and various special forces assisted the sfg in subduing the movement, but despite successful strikes against its leadership and bases, they could not dislodge it. The economy was a mixture of laissez-faire private enterprise and government activities, demonstrating an unregulated and vibrant dynamism but propped up by remittances, donor support, military assistance, and peacekeeping efforts by amisom. Business conditions were extremely challenging, marred by high insecurity and pervasive corruption.