Africa Update

Volume 2 1992

SLAUGHTER IN SOMALIA

The east African nation of Somalia is in the grip of chaos and carnage since full scale civil war erupted in November 1991. This present conflict is threatening to destabilise an already volatile region.

This muslim nation was armed as a client state of the Soviet Union until 1977 when the USSR switched sides in the war between Ethiopia and Somalia. As the previous American ally of Ethiopia was adopted by the Soviets, the USA began to pour military aid into Somalia. Since 1988 Somalia has also endured a guerilla offensive from secessionists in the north.

On 26 January 1991, the 21-year brutal rule of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown and the present civil strife exploded.

The population of the capital city of Mogadishu has been reduced to half of its pre-war number. Civilians scavange for food and huddle in fear during the incessant artillery and mortar bombardments. The fluid battle lines leave many suburbs and squatter camps in ruins. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have been displaced by the fighting. Large parts of the city have been reduced to rubble.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has calculated that approximately 30 000 were killed or injured in the first 5 months of fighting. Africa Watch estimates that the total casualty figure exceeds 41 000 so far.

All social order has disappeared and looting, theft and murder is rampant. The few doctors available are being overwhelmed ith patients suffering severe malnutrition, skin diseases, gastro intestinal illnesses and festering war wounds.

LAND GRAB IN ZIMBABWE

Despite constitutional guarantees made before and after independence, the Zimbabwe government of Robert Mugabe is engaged in a forceful confiscation of 5 million hectares of commercial farm land. Although the stated intention is to “redistribute” the land to communal subsistence farmers there is a general perception that, due to the prevalence of corruption in the state bureaucracy, little of this land will end up in the hands of the needy. The Commercial White farmers have earned one-third of all foreign exchange in Zimbabwe.

Corruption involving the sale of import licences, kick backs on the purchase of government and army vehicles and equipment is widespread. President Mugabe recently fired his Army Commander Rex Nhongo for corruption, yet local Zimbabweans laugh at such efforts and point out that Mugabe himself has been involved in similar scams. The Monomatapa People’s Alliance recently alleged that the Mugabes have salted away over US $700 million into foreign bank accounts.

A recent parliamentary committee investigating the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) found the ZNA “in such chaos that its ability to guard the nation is dubious.” The committee reported seeing acres of unserviceable vehicles, graveyards of equipment, inhuman living conditions, secret documents left lying around, and structures likely to fall apart at any time.

Meanwhile, AIDS has reached pandemic proportions in Zimbabwe. Recent government sources accept that the level of infection by AIDS is around 10% for the population and 20% for the army. However, a recent report by the Panos Institute of London calculates that one in five of the sexually active population and four out of ten of their offspring will die prematurely of AIDS. (Africa Insight)

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