AFRICA : ‘Nightmare of Bloodshed’ in Somalia

Doctors Without Borders, the French humanitarian group, calls the Somali capital of Mogadishu “a ravaged city . . . forgotten by the international community.” The United Nations describes it as “a human disaster of appalling magnitude” and “a nightmare of bloodshed and brutality.” It is so dangerous to send help to the starving and the wounded by road or air that the World Food Program plans to supply the city by anchoring a cargo ship offshore.

U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali is asking the world for $60 million to help the Somalis, even though he knows they need more. It’s simply not realistic, U.N. officials say, to expect to deliver more than that to the war-torn nation any time soon.

SITUATION--Somalia is caught in a strange and chilling civil war, little noted because there are no foreign journalists in the capital and only a handful of diplomats.

The little country of 7 million is not the only source of disastrous troubles in what is known as the Horn of Africa. Several million people are uprooted in the region, either fleeing calamities or heading back home after years spent away. Tribal conflicts are rampant.

Within the Horn, according to a U.N. report, “as many as 23 million people have been identified as being at risk from starvation, epidemics and disease.” Boutros-Ghali is asking donors for $620 million during the next six months to help all the countries of the Horn: Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan and Kenya.

BACKGROUND--For several decades, the outside world looked on Somalia as different from most tribally divided African countries because it was blessed with a single tribe, speaking the same Somali language. Somali governments, in fact, openly coveted Djibouti, eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya on the grounds that these areas were peopled with ethnic Somalis.

Yet the Somalis are not a united tribe. They have always been divided into clans and sub-clans, and their conflicts have now proven as violent as any tribal struggle in Africa.

From 1988 until he was ousted in 1991, Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre tried with great brutality to suppress a rebellion in northern Somalia. His overthrow did not end the conflict.

The warring intensified in Mogadishu between two sub-clans, the Habir Gedir Sadds and the Abgals. It has been a continual and ferocious battle, with 20,000 killed, by some estimates. Two-thirds of the capital’s 1.5 million people have fled the city.

RELIEF--Violence and looting have crippled international aid. Both warring sub-clans seem to look on humanitarian workers as fair game for attacks and their supplies as war booty. An International Red Cross worker was shot and killed in December, prompting the rest of the Red Cross staff to leave temporarily. Doctors Without Borders left for 10 days last year after one of its cars was sprayed with bullets.

In September, the United Nations appealed for $400 million before the end of 1991 for Horn of Africa relief. But only $260 million was collected.

OUTLOOK--Boutros-Ghali is inviting leaders of the two sub-clans to halt hostilities and come to New York to negotiate a cease-fire. Two U.N. officials flew to Mogadishu on Wednesday to deliver the invitations. There have been inconclusive reports about whether the two leaders, both of whom claim the right to run the country, are ready to stop battling and talk.