Terror Free Somalia Foundation

Somali government soldiers patrol on a pick-up truck outside the presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu, August 26, 2009. Somali Islamists opposing the the country's Transitional Federal Government have warned the French government against sending more security advisors to Somalia. REUTERS



MOGADISHU, Monday
Somali Islamists opposing the the country's Transitional Federal Government have warned the French government against sending more security advisors to Somalia.
This is in reaction to the news that the European country is to continue assisting the TFG, especially in its drive to build a strong security apparatus.
On Saturday, Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal, the leader of Camalka Islaamka (Islamic Action), an Islamist group sympathetic to the armed groups in Somalia, expressed its opposition to France dispatching security advisors to Somalia. He insisted that any French official coming to Somalia will be kidnapped.The threat comes only four days after a French official, Marc Aubrière, escaped from hostage takers in Mogadishu while another one who was also kidnapped by radical Islamists on July 14 remains in custody. The official, who regained his freedom in an undisclosed manner, sought refuge at the presidential palace before flying to Nairobi, Kenya on August 26 and eventually to Paris.French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner recently told the media in Paris and quoted in the Somali media that his country will continue assisting the TFG. The minister added that France wanted to send military officials to train the government force in order to perk up security.Kouchner reiterated that the fact that a French official remains hostage in Somalia would not deter his government from helping the TFG, as quoted by Xog-ogaal newspaper in Mogadishu on Sunday...more..http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/648046/-/137gxc2z/-/