Seizing Mogadishu will not end Somali conflict Amb. David Shinn

[Jacaylbaro]

I'm quoted in Richard Lough's Reuters article on Somalia (edited by David Clarke). Here are the quotes:

"HARD AND MESSY" FIGHT

 

Most Horn of Africa experts predict the government and peacekeepers will have little choice but to draw on their superior fire power.

 

"It will be hard and messy to take control of Bakara market," said David Shinn, adjunct professor of international affairs at George Washington University and a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia.

 

...Analysts, however, are sceptical that military gains alone will end more than two decades of conflict in Somalia.

 

"The Somalis themselves need to turn on al Shabaab to end the crisis and put Somalia in a position to create a broad-based government," said Shinn.