Somalia - Life has little value in Somalia

Medeshi 2 Sept, 2008
PETALING JAYA: A person’s life is not worth much in Somalia – Sufi Yusoff should know.
The personal assistant to Tun Dr Mahathir was trapped in Mogadishu, Somalia, for three months in 1993 when he was sent there as a journalist.
“Over there, it is overrun by Somali warlords and rebel groups. They do not hesitate to kill. Your life is not worth much to them. It’s everybody for himself and the strongest warlord wins,” he said.
Sufi, 37, was there in mid-August of 1993 to cover the Malaysian army involvement in the UN peacekeeping operations in Somalia.
“I was supposed to be there for two weeks and then fly out on my own on a UN civilian flight,” he said.
However, as the rebels had intensified attacks against United Nations, all airports were closed for civilian flights, leaving him stranded in the city until Nov 19, when he managed to fly out to Nairobi, Kenya.
“In Somalia, it’s very difficult to really do any negotiations as they have no central government. Over there you are dealing with a lot of warlords and everybody wants to be the party to negotiate with the UN.
“But the problem is that no one person has enough influence over everyone in the country so no one person can actually represent everyone,” he said.
“Somalia is still very much the same now. It’s still in the news for all the wrong reasons. I hope we get the Malaysian hostages out safely.”