UN to Address Mounting Humanitarian Concerns, Security Challenges Facing Somali Refugees

One week after international donors pledged more than $200 million, primarily toward security needs of a new government in Somalia, UN officials are expected to address the humanitarian response to Somalia’s refugee crisis. In London Friday, they will discuss what is needed inside the country and in surrounding areas to promote stability and improve conditions for more than 260-thousand residents who have fled to overcrowded camps in northeastern Kenya. Colin Thomas-Jensen, the Africa advocacy and research manager for the Washington-based Enough Project, points out that much of the international donor support pledged last week at the donor conference in Brussels, Belgium will go toward strengthening African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Somalia, but that the rest of the donated funds should be disbursed very carefully.
“Nearly $150 million is going to support AMISOM (African Union peacekeepers in Somalia), particularly the immense cost of maintaining a peacekeeping mission in perhaps the most difficult operating environment in the world, but also ramping up efforts by the African Union to train the Somali government security forces. And I think that’s a good thing. There’s also about $30 million that’s going straight to the TFG (Transitional Federal Government), and I think this is the money that we have to be very careful about. In particular, this money should not be used to pay salaries of security forces. The TFG is earning money now at the port. And the last thing we need, which was the case the last time, is international funding supporting a security force that more likely than not is going to commit terrible atrocities,” he advised.
Thomas-Jensen says he believes that after 17 years of failed leadership, the non-security-designated donor funds for Somalia should be conditioned on helping the Mogadishu government of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed become a credible and inclusive body that can achieve legitimacy with its Islamist rivals and among the general public...more..http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2009-05-01-voa5.cfm