Syria and the risk of Somalisation  If the crisis continues,
Syria risks not so much division into hostile states as happened
in Yugoslavia, but control by warlords who will persecute the
Syrian people.  The declarations of the international envoy to
Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, to the effect that as many as 100,000
people could die next year in Syria if a way cannot be found
quickly to end the civil war is the most serious warning yet
about the crisis in the country.  Among these declarations he
included another grave warning about the risk of ‘Somalisation‘-
referring to the civil war which has been taking place in
Somalia since 1991. Clarifying his meaning, he predicted that if
the crisis continued, the country would not be divided into
states ‘as happened in Yugoslavia’ but “Somalisation would mean
control by warlords, and the Syrian people will be persecuted by
those who control their fate”.   These declarations sparked a
wave of outrage among Syrian opposition figures who accused him
of favouring the regime,