They are the 17 of a Friday in Mogadishu where even the sound of explosive belts is normal. Al-Shabaab's 9 militia commando yesterday raided the Somali capital with a barbarous result enough to win the approval of Al-Quaeda: 17 dead and 28 injured.
The first explosion can be felt at the entrance of the Maka Al-Mukarramh, the hotel that is on the road to the presidential palace and which daily hosts journalists from all over the world, diplomats and politicians of all levels. The car bomb opens a gap and starts alerting guests and neighbors.
The commando bursts into the lobby of the hotel. The silence comes, the fear and death that in Somalia does not seem to work enough.
Four assailants reach the roof where they shoot on the crowd escaping confused by the noise and terrified by panic. More dead and wounded.
Those staying in the hotel take possession of the entire structure. The situation degenerates into a grand siege with explosive belts and gusts on civilians.
The Somali special forces intervene who break through a wall to enter and, after 13 hours, put an end to the siege, killing also the last of the barricaded terrorists.
The fear and the whistle of the bullets in the ears remain. A normal day in Mogadishu can end this way too.
Mogadishu and Somalia have not seen normality for decades, they fight one civil war after another as if the impelling need to harbor hatred for something or for someone is felt.
Italy in 1992 laid the groundwork for starting work on the social, economic and political recovery of the country through the UN mandate. With the reasons still to be clarified in the 1995, the IBIS mission ends: we abandon Somalia to its destiny and wait for the situation to resolve itself.
"We left them to die like beasts, I don't think I'll ever forgive myself!" one of the veterans tells me in tears. At twenty it seems that no one has ever set foot in Somalia.
Crossroads of all types of illicit trafficking and many analysts called "no man's land", anyone can start a war and fight it in Somalia.
With immense momentum of initiative (but very little substance), Europe has decided to create a multinational contingent to help the Somali government train its new armed forces and police force.
Terrorism of Islamic origin in the meantime grinds dead and recruits personnel; while the others train from scratch, they build an illegality empire on the ruins of a state.
Italy has always played a key role in supporting the country: given its colonial history and the excellent relationship maintained, Somalia has great confidence in the tricolor and especially in the Army.
The economic and political resurgence of the country will be literally impossible until the Al-shaabab militias, linked to the terrorist network of Al-Qaeda, will be neutralized or at least reduced to the minimum terms to secure the country.
The absence of a credible alternative to the dominance of jihadist militias, in fact, often constitutes the cause of the proliferation of criminal phenomena, often feeding the re-entry of the militias themselves in the territories subtracted thanks to the military capacity of government forces and the African Union.
Italy is at the forefront for the training of the country's regular forces with the EUTM Somalia mission, a certainly important action accompanied, however, by an overall strategy for the country and the entire region that is very modest, poorly financed and destined to assume a marginal role compared to that of other European countries, or of the new major players such as Turkey.
It would be appropriate to dedicate a much more courageous and substantial intervention project to Somalia and the entire Horn of Africa.
Our country could take the leadership - this time seriously - of European support and focusing without delay on institutional reconstruction and the cultural revival of the country, above all thanks to the long tradition that links the two nations.
Investing in Somalia and its regrowth would mean having a significant influence on the migratory routes on the Italian coast, not only the return in terms of public opinion would be exceptional but certainly would begin a new phase of trust between institutions and the Somali population.
The cutting of migratory flows is not only fundamental for our country but it would also drastically cut terrorist financing in the Kisimayo port area in southern Somalia, leaving investment to a minimum to counter the new forces of the government coalition.
The exceptional results of security investments in the Corno d'Africa area have already proved successful with the annihilation of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
The contrast has seen the deployment of both land forces and maritime forces, without detracting from the fundamental importance of the private security forces used on merchant ships. What Somalia represents for Italian foreign policy is a project of international credibility, a responsibility that we must and can take, but which we put aside, considering the military and diplomatic disbursement that this task would require superficial.
I wonder then if it is still the case to complain about terrorism, if it is appropriate to cry the victims of the attacks when you do not have the will neither political nor public opinion to eradicate the problem or at least to curb it when it could materially do something.
The people unknown to history have never liked them.
