SomaliNet Forums

IRONm@N wrote:There is more regional and global politics playing here. it has nothing to do with Somalia, its more to do with egos and money.

read is excerpt:

Ethiopia seemed offended by the United States recent decision to turn to Kenya. Zenawi’s displeasure is motivated by two main concerns:

a) Ethiopia is worried that Kenya might replace it as a key player in East Africa’s military and security affairs. Zenawi doesn’t want to lose the power and prestige the strategic alliance affords him in terms of consolidating power.

b) If Kenya succeeds in crushing al-Shabab, along with its backers, Kenya will have more leverage to influence the resultant political outcome. That, of course, reduces Ethiopia’s influence and will have a more immediate consequence for Ethiopia’s domestic politics.

The financial and political incentives, provided by the U.S., have always been a secondary motive for Zenawi’s meddling in Somalia. Ethiopia has been battling Oromo and Ogaden insurgencies, both groups with kinship, historical and political ties to the people of Somalia. Thus, Meles’ determination to prevent the reemergence of a stable and sovereign government in Somalia is a tacit maneuver to deny these rebels a possible ally.

If Kenya, seen as sympathetic to Ethiopian rebels, dominates the Somali conflict, the resulting political arrangement might not favor Zenawi. To allow that would be a disastrous blow; thus, he secured an endorsement from the African Union by exploiting the Union’s suspicion of western imperialistic ambitions in light of recent events in Libya.

At the moment, both Ethiopia and Kenya are working from two angles in the battle for Somalia’s control. Ethiopia’s decision to throw itself onto this conflict is based on a simple strategic calculation that its military strength will tip the outcome in their favor.

http://www.hiiraan.com/op2/2011/nov/the ... kenya.aspx

union wrote:To paraphrase an American ambassador “Somalis barely exist in the world’s periphery but yet they think they are at its very center”.

union wrote:To paraphrase an American ambassador “Somalis barely exist in the world’s periphery but yet they think they are at its very center”.

union wrote:To paraphrase an American ambassador “Somalis barely exist in the world’s periphery but yet they think they are at its very center”.

Zenawi doesn’t want to lose the power and prestige the strategic alliance affords him in terms of consolidating power.