Horn of Africa: Danger Zone

Ethiopia and Somalia are poised precariously close to war. In early December the United Nations Security Council authorised a regional peace support mission to Somalia. This was heralded as an act of war by the newly established Islamist authorities in Mogadishu. They interpreted it as a cue for United States- backed Ethiopian intervention in support of the beleaguered Transitional Federal Government. The aim would be to contain or even dislodge the Islamists from Mogadishu. And all in the name of the ‘war’ on terrorism. Within days there were reports of armed conflict and the Islamists issued an ultimatum for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops.