In his African Safari blog the other day, Rob Crilly offered some good advice for any journalist thinking of going to Somalia. With the Ethiopian troops apparently determined to leave by the end of the year, militant Islamists making gains, the barely existing transition government collapsing and pirates continuing to be a story, the country may be tempting for reporters, particularly young ones who are desperate to prove themselves.

In “How to Plan a Trip to Somalia”, Crilly sets out a decision-making list of seven points:

1) Have you been to Somalia before? If yes proceed to 2. If no proceed to 3

2) Were you kidnapped on that occasion? If yes proceed to 4. If no proceed to 5

3) Have you been to Iraq or Afghanistan? If yes proceed to 7. If no proceed to 6

4) Then you should know better. Don’t go

5) Then your luck is probably about to run out. Don’t go

6) Then what are you thinking of? Don’t go

7) Then you are probably under the impression that you can hide in the green zone and wait for an embed to go somewhere interesting. In Somalia there’s no green zone, and the only embeds are with Ethiopian or African Union soldiers who are being blown to smithereens on a daily basis. There’s no-one you can trust. And no-one who can guarantee your safety. Don’t go

If you need additional convincing, have a look at today’s Human Rights Watch report “So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia”, which highlights frequent violations of the laws of war, including indiscriminate attacks, killings, rape and use of civilians as human shields. It continues, “Since early 2007, the escalating conflict has claimed thousands of civilian lives, displaced more than a million people, and driven out most of the population of Mogadishu, the capital.”

The humanitarian crisis is compounded by the extreme insecurity faced by anyone who even dares try to help. “This past year has seen a wave of death threats and targeted killings against civil society activists and humanitarian workers in Somalia. At least 29 humanitarian workers have been killed in 2008 and the threat of more attacks has driven many of the very people Somalia most needs in this time of crisis to flee the country.”

Like Crilly, I cannot imagine any foreign journalist trying to report from Somalia right now. Yet, that hardly means we can forget the place, of course. Somehow, we will have to help the country get the kind of international attention it needs -- ie, focused on the politics rather than the pirates -- without international journalists being on the ground there for some time.
 



 

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