BRIGHT FUTURE? Amisom peace keepers keep watch on top of a building that houses the Out Patient’s Department of the Amisom medical unit in Mogadishu. Their job entails them to keep alert all the time.
About a week before members of the United Nations Security Council and 27 members of the European Union’s top military organ flew into Uganda to, among other things, map out efforts for a final push to rout out Somali militant group, al Shabaab, from their bases, Sunday Monitor’s Risdel Kasasira spent five days in the Horn of Africa country. From the Somalia capital, Mogadishu, he asks how peace can be returned to the war-weary country and narrates the combat challenges currently facing the Uganda-led African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) in their quest to end the nearly two-decade insurgency: -
In any effort to resolve an armed conflict, the process usually involves two major aspects; the military method which always ends with the loss of lives, especially of otherwise innocent people caught in the crossfire. And the diplomatic aspect, which involves talking to all warring parties.
But for the Somali conflict one wonders whether war will ultimately bring peace. One can’t help asking, should the Somali government negotiate with al Shabaab? Will Uganda and Burundi, so far the only two countries to contribute troops to the 8,000-strong Amisom force, win this war on their own if other African countries do not provide more soldiers to bring troops to the required level of at least 20,000?
Some protagonists in this conflict, including the acting Somali Prime Minister, Abdirahman Gonjeh, are pessimistic about peace talks with al Shabaab.
“I don’t think the al Shabaab can reconcile with us,”” he says. “They have their flag and they believe in a different ideology. Somalia will be peaceful if the international community and African Union help the government to build a strong military base and flash out these insurgents.”
The Somalia conflict is riding on a harmful combination of tribal warring and religious extremism and has now been complicated by the imported cross-border terrorism courtesy of al Qaeda, a militant Islamist terror outfit led by Osama bin Laden.
This complexity of the two-decade conflict is why Abdi-Karim Osman, a Somali working at Mogadishu Port, suggests that African Union forces should be increased to fight, disarm warlords and occupy the whole of Somalia for years to allow the warring parties reconcile.
“Peace talks cannot bring peace to Somalia because we have tried that before and failed. What we need now is African Union to first pacify the whole of Mogadishu through a military campaign and give a chance to peace talks later,” he says. “Uganda cannot win this war alone. Other African countries must come in,”
Mr Osman’s argument seems to suggest that this sort of action will provide the warring factions with an opportunity to listen to each other if they are all disarmed.
If peace talks fail and the African countries do not contribute troops to the required levels, according to other schools of thought, then the warlords should be left to fight each until they the find equilibrium.
However, the commander of African Union forces in Somalia, Gen. Nathan Mugisha, disagrees with the proponents of the argument that UPDF should withdraw and leave the Somalis to fight until they find a balance.
“This is an African problem. We must solve it as Africans and the more we delay, the more it gets complicated,” he says.
Gen. Mugisha is optimistic that peace talks between the belligerents will help to deliver Somalia to sanity.
Gen. Mugisha is optimistic that peace talks between the belligerents will help to deliver Somalia to sanity.
He gives an example of the militia group, Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, which recently joined the transitional government of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed after peace negotiations.
These militias were fighting alongside UPDF and TFG forces in El-hind near the Somali parliament against al Shabaab when I visited the area. The group is made up of moderate Sufi Muslims who have been fighting the insurgent groups; al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam in central Somalia.
Combat challenges
But, as Amisom fights for peace, are they gaining any ground in a hot spot where even the American forces were given a bloody nose? The answers lie in the explanations.
But, as Amisom fights for peace, are they gaining any ground in a hot spot where even the American forces were given a bloody nose? The answers lie in the explanations.
Over the years, the UPDF warfare doctrine has traditionally focused more on its conduct in a rural environment. In Somalia, however, they are engaged in urban combat and the commanders say the soldiers now seem to adapt quickly.
Of all the types of ground over which UPDF has fought battles like the plains in the northern region, the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Ruwenzori mountains, street-combat in Mogadishu is a new kettle of fish.
It is a hazardous and dangerous fighting ground because everywhere in built-up areas, the ruined buildings can be used by well-concealed snipers to attack. Every doorway, window, pile of rubble, rooftop and seemingly abandoned cars, could contain a fatal hazard for the unwary.
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