Most Failed State

"The [government] is known by ordinary Somalis as being so corrupt that it has no legitimacy. But these will be the people that the international community will 'engage' - the same ministers and parliamentarians whom donor states know to have stolen most of the bilateral assistance given them in recent years." J.Peter Pham, The Atlantic Council

Somalia is mired in chaos. The Western-backed government has Mogadishu back under its aegis, now that Al-Shebab has considerately left in haste. But Mogadishu is where their authority starts and ends. It seems to be enough for the government and its cronies. Since that is where the international community sends its financial support, and where the government can handily siphon it.

There is plenty of money in Somalia. There is a lot of suffering in Somalia; poverty is endemic, and famine continues to stalk the land. But an international response to Somalia's grave difficulties is set to address some of those issues. Not the least reason is that of humanitarian need. But on a more practical level, to deal somehow with piracy.

It has become a true regional enterprise of huge proportions that costs the economy of the world an estimated $7-billion yearly. For patrol vessels to apprehend pirates in the process of taking ships, cargoes and crews into custody, awaiting patriation through extremely rewarding freight charges. For ballooning insurance costs. For ransoms paid. For huge shipping losses.

Those pirate gangs and those who have invested in providing them with mother craft, weapons and other facilitating options, have 'earned' a cool $155-million in ransoms in 2011 alone. Warships belonging to countries all over the world patrol the waters off Somalia's very long coastline with their high-tech weapons and private armed guards.

Of course the pirates have high-tech weapons too, and they gamble that the ocean is large and wide and the patrol vessels can't be everywhere - and they aren't. Somalia once had a dictator that kept the country ticking away, until Siad Barre was overthrown, and then the country dissolved in a paroxysm of warlords lording it over their territory, and erupting conflicts.

Kenya, which has huge refugee camps beyond its border with Somalia, with Somalians desperate to escape the violence and the failed agricultural miasma plaguing the country, has placed troops alongside those of Ethiopia within Somalia to challenge the Al Shebab insurgents, recently allying themselves with al-Qaeda.

So everything will be all right then, with the United Nations Security Council prepared to pass a resolution to increase the African Union peacekeeper presence, to allow them to venture outside Mogadishu and attempt to bring some order to the vast outer reaches of the country where Al Shebab has established bases.

Except, something is very rotten in the state of Somalia with rampant corruption and power brokers, pirate chiefs and business tycoons reluctant to give up their cash cows. Reform of the country and the strengthening of government, the cleaning up of the pirate industry will make a lot of players a lot less wealthy.

With peace and security and employment and an end to food scarcity the leverage of funding flowing into waiting private hands rather than government coffers to be disbursed where needed for the betterment of society is endangered. The spoils of war and greed are simply too dear to surrender and so that struggle too must be won.

Little wonder Somalia is considered to represent the world's most failed state. Although, truth to tell, it has ample company.