Gamal Nkrumah wonders if what worked in Puntland will work in the rest of Somalia How difficult it must be to be Somali president at this historical juncture. Last October the transitional Somali parliament convened a special session in Kenya and elected Colonel Abdullah Youssef Ahmed, the self- styled leader of the autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia, as the new interim Somali president. Though Ahmed was inaugurated in Kenya on 12 October efforts are still underway to buttress the new government as tensions continue to run high in the war-ravaged country. Weapons are pouring into Somalia at "a brisk and alarming rate" according to a recently-released United Nations report, as government and opposition forces seek to arm their supporters to the teeth. It is against this backdrop that President Ahmed is paying a three-day visit to Egypt. "We want to brief the Egyptian leadership about the latest developments in Somalia and the challenges we face," Somalia's Foreign Minister Abdullah Sheikh Ismail told Al-Ahram Weekly. The Somali president met President Hosni Mubarak and the Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa. "We are particularly conscious of the special historical relationship between Egypt and Somalia. Egypt has considerable political weight in the African and Arab world. We want Egypt to participate in the stabilisation peace-keeping force. We want an Arab component. We want Egyptian technical expertise in Somalia," the Somali foreign minister said. The Somali president's visit to Egypt is widely seen as a public relations coup for the Somali government. Somalis, or at least their legislator representatives, acknowledge that Ahmed deserves credit for his prudent management of Puntland. He declared the prosperous enclave a self- governing political entity in 1998 but has always stressed that he favours Somali national unity. A majority of Somalis say Ahmed is their best hope to escape their country's chequered past and uncertain future. Indeed, as the Somali president told his Egyptian hosts, the October vote that brought him to power was largely a result of the relatively successful Puntland experiment. Somalia long ago disintegrated into fiefdoms ruled by rival warlords. Ahmed was chosen as president not least because he has maintained excellent working relationships with Somalia's East African and Arab neighbours. The challenge facing Somalia is easy enough to diagnose: the threat of war must be contained. But add to this a complete breakdown in law and order and the inability of the Somali Transitional National Government (TNG) to control the situation even in the capital Mogadishu, and how ever obvious the diagnosis, treatment is far less simple. Weapons are purchased in ever-increasing numbers by opposition groups and a fresh round of factional fighting might break out at any moment. The UN has attempted to tighten the arms embargo imposed on Somalia in a desperate bid to stop the flow of arms and ammunition into the East African country, a fully-fledged member of the Arab League. But existing UN measures have failed in the past, largely because of Somalia's porous borders. Weapons from the United States, Eastern Europe, Libya, Iran and other Gulf countries have found their way to Somalia either directly or through Somalia's neighbours -- Yemen, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. The region is awash with arms and weapons are openly sold in the country's markets. Most Somali men own firearms and an automatic rifle can be bought for the price of a chicken. The Somali government has, therefore, called on the African Union and the Arab League to dispatch between 5,000 and 7,500 troops to keep the peace and protect the government as it strengthens the police and armed forces. But sending troops from neighbouring non-Muslim African nations could, warn Muslim clerics and the US State Department in a rare show of unanimity, antagonise the Somalis, a devoutly Muslim people. Indeed, demonstrations have already been held to protest against the participation of non-Muslim peace- keeping troops. The Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), a regional organisation grouping seven East African countries, including Somalia and its immediate neighbours Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, is spearheading regional attempts to secure peace in Somalia. Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya have been energetic in their attempts to promote national reconciliation in Somalia. Yet some religious leaders in Somalia accuse essentially non-Muslim Ethiopia, a country with a large and restive ethnic Somali population, of fomenting trouble. Addis Ababa, which vigorously denies the charge, backed its Somali allies when they banded together to form the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), a rival administration to the TNG. Among the most prominent of the SRRC warlords is Hussein Aidid -- son of Mohamed Farah Aidid who, in 1993, masterminded America's most disastrous military loss since the Vietnam War. It is largely thanks to the new Somali president that the autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia has been an exception to the usual rule. Puntland is one of the best-run regions of Somalia and maintains a brisk trade with the Arabian Gulf, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The Somali president is in Washington's good books. He also has an excellent working relationship with the Ethiopians. "Puntland is perhaps the safest and most secure part of the country. The ports of Puntland are run efficiently and there are no gangs of gun-brandishing and trigger happy young men terrorising people as is the case in other regions of Somalia," Somalia's Ambassador to Egypt Abdullah Hassan Mahmoud told the Weekly.
