Security News By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
MEMBER states of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development {IGAD} are reportedly in the process of adopting a hard-line stance towards the Somali based al-Shabaab, which bombed the Ugandan capital Kampala on July 11, killing 7u6 people.
Top security chiefs from the member states this morning {Monday 20thjuly 2010} started a three days crucial security meeting in the Ethiopia capital, Addis Ababa. The meeting is to decide as to which countries will be contributing the troops.
Apart from increasing troops, members of the African Union Commission, which is in charge of the AMISOM has been under heavy pressure to change the mandate from peace-keeping to become peace enforcement, a move that would allow full scale engagement of the AMISOM troops.
After the two bombs exploded in a crowded public joint in Kampala and left 74 people lying dead and scores fatally injured, the Alqaeda backed al-Shabaab Islamist militia in Somalia claimed the responsibility. Two other victims succumbed to their injuries and later died at the Mulago Hospital where they were rushed for treatment, bringing the number of the toll to 76.
In response to the attacks, the IGAD member states which comprises of Uganda, Sudan, Eretria, Kenya, Djibouti, and Ethiopia agreed that 2000 extra peace-keepers should be dispatched immediately to Mogadishu in order to beef up the 6,100 AMISOM troops already on the ground. This will bring the total number of AU soldiers in the horn of Africa nation, which has remained ungovernable for decades to a total 8,100.
“This act of terrorism against innocent Ugandan citizens has only strengthen IGAD member countries resolve to deal with Somalia problem by increasing the number of troops to be stationed there,” IGAD’s Executive Secretary Mahboud Maalim in a telephone interview.
The additional troops will increase the number of IGAD member states soldiers serving under AMISOM to 8,100by the end of next month {August 2010}.
However, the proposed change of the AU peace keeping force to a reinforcement troops in Somalia faces some technical hitch. It requires that the change of the mandate of the AU Commission to seek permission of the UN Security Council, since the AU mission is under the UN and as such any move to have the AMISOM mandate change must get the UN permission.
I a recent interview with the region’s most influential weekly, the EASTAFRICAN, the Amisom’s overall Commander Maj-General Nathan Mugisha maintained that the AU peace keepers I Somalia have succeeded in securing key installations such as the Mogadishu Airport and the Seaport, which are now fully operational as normally as before, and that the force main mission is not to engage in military combat.
“Our job is to create an environment for negotiation and reconciliation. The solution to the Somali problem must be a political one and not military,” Said Gen Mugisha. However, after the attacks in Kampala, pressure to change the AU peace keeping forces mandate is likely to intensify in the near future.
Meanwhile information emerging from the Kenya capital, Nairobi revealed that East Africa’s Defense Chiefs met there last moth and recommended the UN’s ban Somalia’s immediate neighbors from sending peacekeeping troops to that country be lifted.
The UN Resolution 1725 does not allow Somalia’s neighbors like Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya to contribute peace keeping force to beef up the mission. Though for example Djibouti had requested to be allowed to send 450 soldiers to Amisom forces in January this year. It was forced to stop doing so by the UN.
In 2006,Ethiopia with the support of the United States of America, sent troops to Mogadishu to back up the interim government and drive out hardliner Islamists from power. It is this intervention which sparked off insurgency that gave birth to Al-Shabaab after the Ethiopian soldiers pulled out in 2009.
IGAD, which comprises Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, is also reportedly planning to push for an increase of troops to Somalia to 20,000,by lobbying African Union members to provide the troops and foreign donors, the necessary funds. The regional body argues it is the only way to stabilize Somalia.
Reports says, some non-IGAD countries have offered to provide troops to AMISOM, but the only problem being availability of funds to sustain the extra troops in Somalia.
At the moment, our plan is to get additional troops comprising ethnic Somalia trained by neighboring countries, IGAD member states and East African Community members states” ,says the executive secretary.
Ends