Experimental malaria vaccine, measles and news from Somalia
First, the cool news: an experimental malaria vaccine that targets mosquitos, not people.
Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed an experimental vaccine that theoretically could eliminate malaria from entire regions by killing the malaria parasite in an area’s mosquitoes, rather than preventing or limiting malaria in vaccinated individuals.
So far, it’s only tested in mice, but it sounds promising.
I’m way behind in getting back to writing about vaccination, but, as long as I’m blogging one vaccination story, I’ll note that a UN-backed mass measles immunization campaign is underway in Ethiopia.
Now for Somalia. Jim Henley asks
Can anyone tell me what the aim of Ethiopia’s new war in Somalia is? That is, on what party does the government of Ethiopia hope to impose its will on what matter using military force? I’m leaving aside for the moment the quaint question of legality – an attack on the territory of another nation is prima facie aggressive war, absent a clear defensive rationale. But I realize that’s a quaint, mid-twentieth century concern, so let’s stick with the brute questions for now. What does Ethiopia think it’s doing, apparently with American encouragement and support? How will anybody know when Ethiopia won? And where did all the money come from? Ethiopia is poor and offensive warfare, expensive.
I’ve been wondering, myself, since what I know about Somalia at this point is, a) it hasn’t had an effective government for a long time, b) the Islamic Courts are fighting it out with some other government, c) it’s flooded, and d) it’s now being attacked by Ethiopia. Sucks to be Somalia right now. Several people in his comments suggest that what Somalia thinks it’s doing is fighting the Islamic Courts; a more elaborate (and cynical) answer is provided by Shab al-Sham, who I hope won’t mind if I steal his whole comment.
To take a stab at a more substantive answer (one that assumes that the Ethiopian government does, in fact, have some idea as to what it’s doing):
The ruling party in Ethiopia “won†a hotly contested election in 2005 under somewhat dodgy circumstances. There was some unrest; government forces then killed some dissidents and imprisoned thousands more before the situation could get out of hand. Ethiopia’s political future remains unclear.
By fighting the Islamic Courts, Ethiopia gets to play the “Taliban†card (however misguided the analogy is) and guarantee US and British support, strengthening the Ethiopian government internally. Any strategic gains Ethiopia actually achieves in Somalia are just a nice bonus.
From Ethiopia’s perspective, there’s not that much to lose: Somalia and Ethiopia are old arch-enemies anyway. Ethiopia doesn’t actually want the Baidoa “government†to “win†in a meaningful sense: it doesn’t want Ethiopia to be friendly, it wants Ethiopia to be weak. If Ethiopia destroys the fragile security delivered by the Islamic Courts, maybe it ca return Somalia to warlordism and full-on civil war and prevent the reemergence of a strong government in its arch-rival.
But even if Ethiopia can’t keep Somalia as weak as it was in the 1990s, at least the ruling Ethiopian government can make its own position stronger.
The Head Heeb, who clearly knows more than I do about this whole mess, has his own analysis.
The looming war between Ethiopia and the Somali Islamic judiciary began in earnest over the weekend, with Ethiopia bombing strategic targets throughout Somalia and engaging Islamist militias with tanks and artillery. For the first time, the Ethiopian government has acknowledged that its forces are in Somalia and that it is in an effective state of war with the Supreme Islamic Courts Council. By yesterday, the SICC forces were reported to be in retreat from the positions they had earlier taken near the transitional capital of Baidoa, and were apparently falling back on Mogadishu.
What remains to be seen is how far and how fast the fighting will spread. Although Addis Ababa claims to be intervening in support of the Somali transitional government and is predicting a quick exit, its forces’ objective as articulated by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi leaves ample room for mission creep. According to Zenawi, Ethiopia has no intention of eliminating the SICC as such, but plans to pursue the foreigners who are fighting on its side…
Other Somalia-related links:
Grandiose Parlor has a round up.
ReliefWeb Somalia Situation Report for 27 December 2006.
Ethiopian blogger Enset describes Ethiopia’s war with Somalia as A Reckless War Borne of Bad Choices (via Global Voices).
The truth of the matter is that Ethiopia was not forced to enter this war; rather, it is the bad policy choices that the Meles regime has made with regard to Somalia and domestically combined with the reckless decision of the lunatic Eritrean regime to engage in a proxy war with Ethiopia that has made this war inevitable. The United States Government should also bear the responsibility for this war since it is the CIA’s botched attempt to support a group of Somali warlords early this year that led to the rise of the radical Islamists and this Ethiopian adventure into Somalia could not have taken place without a tacit approval from the US.
It was also reckless of the radical Islamists to refuse to talk to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia at the Khartoum talks where they had the most to gain through negotiations. But they blew it believing that the TFG based in the town of Baidoa would crumble under their military might. Is continued war making the way to bring peace and security to clan-crazy Somalia? I seriously doubt it. Somalis who support the Islamists should also not delude themselves into thinking that it is Ethiopia that is preventing them from having peace and security. The facts on the ground point otherwise — the Somali regions of Somaliland and Puntland, which are allied with the Ethiopian regime, have been the ones that are relatively more stable over the last decade.
Lots more stuff at ReliefWeb: Annan is telling neighboring countries to stay out of Somalia fighting, a UN food aid agency is suspending air delivery as fighting intensifies, etc.
I don’t think I can possibly do justice in regular news round ups to both Somalia/Ethiopia and Darfur/Chad/CAR, so this may be the last I have to say on Somalia/Ethiopia. Or, then again, maybe not, depends what I see in my feeds.