Back to Google News Two decades on in Somalia, peace remains elusive

NAIROBI — On the 20th anniversary of president Mohamed Siad Barre's ouster, which triggered Somalia's descent into chaos and one of Africa's longest civil wars, analysts say prospects for peace remain slim.
The Horn of Africa country is now best known to the outside world for being the place that inspired the Hollywood war movie "Black Hawk Down" and the reason the term "failed state" was coined.
Its seaside capital, once famed for its Italian colonades and some of the best espresso in Africa, is now a bombed-out shell where those residents who have no place to flee to risk coming under mortar fire on a quasi-daily basis.
More than a dozen attempts have failed to restore stability, and the country's current internationally-backed government has been shrivelled by an Islamist insurgency.
President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed controls just a few sectors of Mogadishu and stays holed up in his fortified Villa Somalia except when heading to the airport under heavy escort.Read More