ACTION ALERT! If you’ve been following the news recently, you’ve probably heard a lot about pirates. Not the swashbuckling, patch-over-the-eye, ruthless robber kind, but the disempowered, poverty-stricken, Somali kind. Although the piracy situation off the coast of...
by Beth Tuckey For many of us, the word “pirate” conjures up a whole host of images, most notably that of a swashbuckling, patch-over-the-eye, ruthless robber. In our history texts, pirates sailed the high seas in search of treasure chests of gold, often in...
In a statement released Tuesday, January 27th, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) noted the “important and strategic roles that AFRICOM can play” in boosting the security of Africa’s young democracies. Although he recognized the flaws within AFRICOM and...
By Beth Tuckey As Ethiopia continues its troop withdrawal in Somalia, the international community is holding its breath in hopes that the transition is peaceful. After two years of U.S.-backed occupation of Somalia, Ethiopia finally recognized that its presence could...
Just when we thought the situation in Somalia couldn’t possibly get any worse, recent weeks have shown that Somalia will likely deteriorate further before stabilizing. From piracy to militancy to displacement and starvation of the local population, Somalia needs...
Last year, the people of Somalia caught a glimpse of tranquility. It was fleeting and certainly not without its violent interruptions, but the few months of rule under the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) is now being called Somalia’s ‘golden era’ by top United Nations...
Like the Israelites after the fall of the first Temple (recorded in the book of Lamentations), Somalia’s people suffer innumerable woes. With residents fleeing in the hundreds of thousands, their Jerusalem lies deserted and destroyed (Mogadishu), and many believe that...
In early June, the United States intervened militarily in Somalia for the third time this year, striking a group of alleged terrorists with cruise missiles. The men targeted had come ashore in northern Somalia two days earlier and were hiding in nearby mountains....
Grim tales of humanitarian emergencies and violence now dominate where once there existed some hope for Somalia’s future. The fragile transitional government and its Ethiopian backers now face a violent insurgency, and the humanitarian situation continues to...
