The anarchic fighting in Somalia – beheadings are common enough to make daily local news in the mortar-pocked capital – has been under-covered and under-analyzed by our shrinking media. The ongoing famine underscores what is at stake in this prolonged civil war between Islamic insurgents and clans in the Horn of Africa. The crisis threatening hundreds of thousands is the culmination of a failed policy on a failed state. Islamic Al- Shabaab rebels have refused to allow aid to starving Somalis and the nominal “Transitional Government” is powerless outside the capital. Largely relegated to the sidelines, the international community set up relief centers in Mogadishu and neighboring Kenya for the half a million refugees who escape out and make the trek on foot.
GFF supports reporting on the Islamic insurgency, pirates and turf wars in Somalia. We hope on-the-ground journalism can lead to a new understanding of what daily life is like in the warzone and the implications of prolonged chaos -- for both Somalis and the greater global community.
