Somalia: Bad Situation, Getting Worse

No end is in sight to the crisis in Somalia, which only gets worse. The international community has grown accustomed to it being without effective government. There are few expressions of sympathy for the daily victims of violence in Mogadishu or audible concerns over the profound humanitarian disaster. The suggestion by former Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch- Brown last July that Somalia rather than Afghanistan poses the greater terrorist threat to Britain, produced only a ripple of interest. Piracy now plaguing the seas can still capture media attention, yet the response has not gone much beyond spawning a lucrative protection industry to share the spoils of state collapse. Something new must be done.