Somalia set to get more peacekeepers, East African Leaders Pledge Urgent Military Help for Somalia‎

East African Leaders Pledge Urgent Military Help for Somalia‎

Kampala

The Inter-governmental Authority on Development member countries yesterday agreed to immediately deploy 2,000 troops to restore sanity in Mogadishu under siege by Al Shabab militants.
President Museveni and his counterparts of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan, which constitute the regional IGAD bloc, agreed to work with the United Nations to raise additional 20, 000 troops to be deployed throughout the restive country.
Somalia has had no functional government since the early 1990s.
The leaders tasked the African Union Commission to mobilise the requisite resources, logistics and equipment for express deployment to quell renewed militancy there, according to a communiqué issued last night after emergency talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
There was no mention of where the expected new troops will come from.
Currently, the AU peacekeeping contingent, whose main contributors are Uganda and Burundi, has about 4,500 troops on the ground --- and are struggling to overcome the Al Shabab, a self-declared Al Qaeda affiliate.

Two of more than 3,000 Ugandan soldiers, deployed there under African Union mandate to strengthen President Sheikh Ahmed Sheikh Sheriff’s wobbly government, were killed last week.
Maj. Barigye Ba-Hoku, the spokesperson for the AU force, AMISOM, said the troops were on Thursday trying to reclaim areas lost to the radicals in past months when they came under “unwarranted” attack.
An AU military tank went up in flames moments after it developed “technical fault” during the skirmishes in Shibishi and Karani Abdul Aziz districts, he said in statement e-mailed to this newspaper.


Threat to region

At yesterday’s meeting, the regional political executives committed to “give unwavering support and assistance to the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in the struggle against extremist and terrorist groups.”
They, according to the communiqué, observed the Somalia situation poses “serious threats” to the peace and stability of its citizens, the region and the international community. Analysts say a lawless Somalia will turn into a merchant for illegal weapons yet a proliferation of small arms across porous borders in the East African region raises the possibility for inter-connected criminal activities.

The heads of states and governments, convening in Addis Ababa for the 15th extra-ordinary summit, appreciated and urged for more international financial, material and technical support to Somalia. “They appreciated the commitment by the leaders of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and urged the Transitional Federal Institutions, to enhance their cohesion and unity in the face of enormous challenges faced by Somalia,” the communiqué read in part. Sheikh Sherif Ahmed’s regime is already plagued by infighting, which further undermines efforts to consolidate peace and dapper its image as a government in charge of the country.
The regional leaders called on the international community to intensify assistance to refugees, internally displaced persons and victims of violence there and urged AU member states that have not contributed troops, to render material and financial support to Somalia.
Many African countries, among them Nigeria, initially offered to send their soldiers to Mogadishu but spiraling violence in Mogadishu forced them to backtrack amid concerns there is no peace there to watch over.