I believe I discussed about this few times a while back although not in full detail.
I think this topic deserves a thread dedicated to it and it be brought up now and again.
Few days ago I was reading a thread somewhere discussing about Africa in regards to immigration to the UK. One of the users commentated that it was none of the UK fault.
Other user replied stating that in fact the blame belongs to the UK government (and respective governments in the west) as the control being exerted into Africa is not through colonialism any more but through debt.
Few days to a month ago, news were everywhere stating that Somalia has over 5bn debt and all the president had to say was ask for forgiveness on their debt.
For this, we must ask one question:
Why did Somalia accept the debt?
The debt came from Barre. Somalia was not like it was back then. There's many more reasons but the point is we have valid reasons to reject the debt. There have been few cases similar to this happening successfully in other countries.
Plus, rejecting the debt would not change anything assuming that the outsiders does not get angry. Sure it means Somalia can't get more loans and it also means Somalia can't access to some financial markets.
But will this change anything? For over 20 years, Somalia has not got money from outsiders. It can manage itself just fine without that haram money.
About a decade ago, Somalia was nearly stabilised. It nearly got what it waited for ages - peace.
Yet, Ethiopians invaded. Why? There were some cables stating that it was supposed to be the US who is doing the invasion but they did not want to because of negative publicity.
To salt the wounds, ICU posed no threat to Ethiopia (apart from some threats), to its own citizen, etc. While I do believe that their view of Islam is misguided but by no means it is misguided enough to seriously harm people nor does it is serious enough harm anyone.
The west's attitude to other regions of Somalia was solely lacking. If they truly wanted a peace for Somalia, they could have supported any of other regions free of the terrorist group until peace is attained. Only the support given to other regions was aid money.
I could go on but that's enough for now.