From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Mar 15 2010 - 07:47:16 EST
"The report also found that "arms, ammunition, or dual-use equipment
continue to enter Somalia in violation of the general and complete arms
embargo imposed in 1992, at a fairly steady rate." Primary sources of this
supply remained Yemen and Ethiopia, it said"
Somali forces corrupt: UN report
March 15, 2010 - 6:34AM
AFP
The Somali government's military forces are ineffective and corrupt, despite
international assistance, and it remains dependent on foreign troops for
survival, UN experts have concluded in a report.
The Monitoring Group on Somalia has also said in its report to be presented
to the UN security council this week that Eritrea continued to support armed
Islamist groups fighting the Somali government in violation of an arms
embargo.
"Despite infusions of foreign training and assistance, government security
forces remain ineffective, disorganised and corrupt," the report said on
Sunday.
Somalia's internationally backed transitional federal government has been
boxed into a tiny perimeter in the capital, Mogadishu, by an insurgency
launched in May last year by the al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab group and its more
political Hezb al-Islam allies.
The Shebab now control most of the centre and south of the Horn of Africa
country, which has embroiled in a virtually non-stop civil war since 1991.
The UN group said: "The military stalemate is less a reflection of
opposition strength than of the weakness of the Transitional Federal
Government."
It described government forces as "a composite of independent militias loyal
to senior government officials and military officers who profit from the
business of war and resist their integration under a single command".
The UN group said in November last year the government had about 2900
operational troops, although it could also count on the support of some
militias Mogadishu thought to number between 5000 and 10,000 fighters.
However, the UN group concluded the Somali government "owes its survival to
the small African Union peace support operation AMISOM, rather than to its
own troops".
AMISOM has about 5000 Ugandan and Burundian troops who fight back nearly
daily attacks on the Somali government by Shebab militants.
The report also concluded that in 2009 "the government of Eritrea has
continued to provide political, diplomatic, financial and - allegedly -
military assistance to armed opposition groups in Somalia."
The support violated a 2008 UN security council resolution that tightened an
arms embargo and other bans on armed groups in Somalia.
"By late 2009, possibly in response to international pressure, the scale and
nature of Eritrean support had either diminished or become less visible, but
had not altogether ceased," it said.
The UN security council in December last year slapped an arms embargo and
sanctions on Eritrea for aiding Somali rebels.
The report also found that "arms, ammunition, or dual-use equipment continue
to enter Somalia in violation of the general and complete arms embargo
imposed in 1992, at a fairly steady rate."
Primary sources of this supply remained Yemen and Ethiopia, it said.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----