Africa 24 Media Photography

The Horn of Africa nation of Somalia continues to be in the news for all the wrong reasons. As the pirates combat and hijack marine ships daily to keep their pockets buoyant with ransom money off the coast of Somali waters, militant groups are up in arms battling the government and African union peacekeepers with sophisticated ammunition in the capital, Mogadishu. A coalition of violent groups has seized strategic installations in the capital, and is threatening to march - through fighting into the presidential palace.

This dreaded group is reported to have contributed to the killing of hundreds of civilians, while an estimated 96,000 Somalis have been displaced internally, and approximately 1.3 million languishing in refugee camps. The coalition is said to comprise of anti-government radicals, Al Shabaab, an Islamist group suspected to have links with Al Qaeda, and Hezbul Islam (Islam Party). The African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) an active, regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the United Nations is in the troubled nation to keep order, but has lately been the target of several landmines planted by the militants and a series of other attacks. As the fighting continues, Somalia, which has not had a functional national government for 18 years, is degenerating into a failed state as the unending security nightmare continue to grip her citizens. However, the fighting should be, and for that matter, is, a major security threat to the nation’s neighbours who seems to be doing no more than watching several refugees stream across the borders into their territory.   

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