The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

cess was held in Djibouti, which led to the selection of Sheikh Sharif
Ahmed, a former UIC leader who had earlier opposed Ethiopian troops
and external peacekeepers in Somalia, on January 31, 2009. While some
Somalis considered this rift as necessary and an opportunity to take
another political direction without Ethiopia’s interference, it also hampered
the opportunity to move forward politically and bring Somalia with
a new reconciliation process. There is now a new leader, a new transitional
government, a new parliament with more members than ever before,
including former warlords who have that agreed to joint the
negotiations and enter the transitional government. The number of
women in the current Parliament is not more than forty, including Ms.
Asha Haji Elmi, so that Somali women continue to be under-represented
in the current TFG and its institutions and in the state-building processes.
The TFG is however doing its best to establish the rule of law and build
state institution, despite the lack of resources and security to operate
and deliver services to its citizens. The presence of African peacekeepers
from Uganda and Burundi remains a thorny issue. Opposition
groups do not support their presence in Somalia and have continued to
fight against the government and international peacekeeping forces. The
TFG continues to call for the deployment of more peacekeeping troops
in Somalia in order to eradicate foreign fighters and local religious
extrem ists. The clashes between these groups continue to cause death
of civilians and displacement.
The warring groups, particularly the warlords, have used violence against
civilians, forced them out of their dwellings and making them either internally
displaced people or refugees in neighbouring countries such as
Kenya, Djibouti, Yemen and Ethiopia. The insecurity and the lawlessness
have created a looting culture, in which those who had the deadliest fire -
arms have taken the property of those who have been forced to flee.
Civilians belonging to the clans targeted by the warlords and their armed
militias have fled from their homes in the capital and in certain towns
and villages, and gone to zones where they could get the protection of
their clans. Other civilians belonging to the same clans as the warlords
and armed militias have also been affected by the violence, as they had
no safe zones to flee to, and have therefore remained in the capital and
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