In the 15th Summit of the African Union in the Ugandan capital of Kampala which took place from 19 to 27 July 2010 the leaders have agreed to send additional 20,000 African troops to Somalia to combat the Al-Qaeda affiliate of Alshabaab but they totally avoided or intentionally underestimated the need to incorporate humanitarian mission into their military engagement. This was clearly visible in their appeal to the International Community for military hardware, funds for war, transport and logistical assistance to conduct a large-scale offensive against the extremists. In their statement they did not mention the demand for civilian protection in the form of humanitarian and emergency aid such as food, shelter, medical services etc. What a shame! It is a crime to fight inside a city and give no consideration to the poor masses who will be caught up in the fire. Among them are women and children who are already devastated by the endless wars in their country.

I can only judge these leaders as interest groups who have no feeling and concern for the Somalis though they claim to be stepping in an effort to rescue the Somalis from religious extremists who have attacked the weak government of Somalia. . Any military action that lacks humanitarian support package is no different than a systematic massacre of innocent civilians no matter how expertly the intervention is justified. A bullet can kill an enemy. It cannot feed a child. But if the intention is to kill both the child and the enemy then the plan will work effectively smart.

Currently we have over 1 million people already displaced from Mogadishu as a result of the war who are suffering from lack of access to basic services. Other millions are starving in the rest of the country and if more people are driven out of their houses the situation will reach to unimaginable levels of horror and destruction which could be uncontrollable even with massive humanitarian inputs geared up to alleviate the suffering victims of war. Besides that the displaced people will fight for their way to survive at any cost and can possibly become soft targets for Al-Shabaab who might lure them to their fake Jihadi business. Some others might move to safer and relatively more stable locations such as Somali-Land and Puntland and shall put heavy strain on the meagre economies of those administrations.

The recent expulsion of thousands of Southerners from Puntland in the guise of beefing up security is a recipe for a widespread chaos and a subsequent humanitarian disaster in the entire region of the Horn of Africa. At the moment the borders with neighbouring nations are either closed or remain open with tightened security not letting anyone to slip in without undergoing a hectic security check up. If people are uprooted without any arrangements for humanitarian aid to which they can fall back, then the consequences of war will be far higher than anyone can imagine. Those who perpetrated the Kampala twin attacks should be taught a lesson but the defenceless civilians and the poor child should not pay the price of these terror attacks.

Why can’t the African leaders think of tackling the problem in a two-pronged way instead of one dimensional-interest-oriented approach or the objective of their peacekeeping mission is to create unnecessary humanitarian tragedy. Why can’t the human rights agencies speak about this horror unfolding before our own eyes or they just want to record casualties and indict culprits when the damage is done? Why can’t the humanitarian agencies warn AU against sending troops unless there is plan to protect the civilians? Anyway it is everybody’s responsibility to suggest corrective measures if something is going wrong. My ability is, at the moment, limited to make a piece of shout and that is what I am doing now through pages of the internet.
I believe that what they say in their document is nothing more than a song of horror which could be depicted in a poetic manner as follows. Please share it with me:

I am a Somali political leader
I swear in the name of Allah
To serve the nation loyally
And to protect its people
But after assuming office
I Fire rounds of mortar
Attack and terrorize civilians
Unless I wade into a sea of blood
I cannot relax on the shores of power
There is life in the death of others