From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Thu Jul 09 2009 - 22:00:25 EDT
Forty Tons of Guns for Somalia
Al-Shabaab fighters
Two Islamist fighters of Al-Shabaab, an insurgency group in Somalia.
The latest shipment of munitions from the US government to Somalia
indicates several strategic implications regarding its interests in the
region, Jody Ray Bennett writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Jody Ray Bennett for ISN Security Watch
The US State Department on 25 June confirmed that it has been providing
arms and ammunition to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia
in an attempt to defeat various militia groups around the country, some of
which the State Department has labeled terrorist organizations.
Al-Shabaab (The Youth) is one such organization that reportedly controls
most of southern and central Somalia, including most of the capital
Mogadishu with a force of approximately 300. The US believes that the group
is threatening the stability of Somalia to the detriment of US interests in
the country, which has forced Washington to provide “training to
government officers and recruits in neighboring Djibouti, where hundreds of
U.S. troops, including Special Forces have been based since 9/11.”
Arming Somalia
Anonymous State Department officials have stated that the US has shipped at
least “forty tones worth of arms and munitions into Somalia” beginning
sometime around early May, according to Reuters. The US government has also
agreed to financially assist the governments of Kenya, Burundi and Uganda
to train Somali troops.
According to the Washington Post, a State Department official recently
explained that aside from the 40-plus tons of weapons already sent to
Somalia, “The U.S. government is providing cash to [the Somali
government] to buy weapons, and has asked Ugandan military forces there to
give Somali soldiers small arms and ammunition […] The U.S. government is
then resupplying the Ugandans”
So far, the US is giving logistical support to the African Union (AU),
which currently holds a 4,300-strong UN-mandated force comprised mostly of
Ugandan nationals. Despite calls from the interim Somali government for the
AU and UN to provide more troops, the mandate for the peacekeeping mission
has yet to be expanded. According to the Washington Post, Kenya and
Ethiopia have already decided against sending any more of their own troops
or security forces to Somalia after Al-Shabaab threatened to escalate
violence if any country or organization sent in more weapons or personnel,
or if the AU peacekeeping mandate was changed to a peace-making operation,
Salon.com reported.
On 3 July, Somalia’s foreign minister said that “several more
battalions of AMISOM troops are likely to be deployed in Mogadishu and that
AMISOM's rules of engagement may be changed to allow the troops to do more
than defend against insurgent attacks.”
On 5 July, John Carson, former US ambassador to Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya and
now assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said that an
800-strong force from Burundi “was ready to deploy as soon as an airlift
is provided.” Carson later stated the government of Djibouti was
consulting with the State Department after indicating a willingness to
deploy a number of its soldiers.
In a recent podcast interview with rabble.ca, Tom Naylor, professor of
economics at McGil University, summarized the volatile themes that makes up
Somalia: “You have regional warlords asserting power, you have a very
weak central government that has to make deals using a little bit of
intimidation where it can but usually using corruption - buying allegiances
and so on - and you have American intervention in part for strategic
reasons in part for economic.”
Somalia continues to be rich with natural gas and a potentially large
reservoir of oil that western companies would be more than eager to exploit
given a more politically stable environment. However, according to
Jamestown.org, China has at least four state-backed energy companies ready
to undercut private western interests in Somalia, which would add to its
growing list of investments throughout the African continent.
US interests
In the broader war on terror, the Obama administration wants a stable to
Somalia to serve as a launching pad for American forces that could
potentially end the piracy problem, secure or control an energy market
against Chinese interests, and suppress the rise of non-state forces in
Somalia, while demonstrating to a Muslim world willingness to cooperate and
collaborate with Muslim countries against common threats.
In a recent interview with WorldFocus, David Shinn, former ambassador to
Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, outlined how the US should approach the
complexity that is Somalia: “The United States should deal with Somalia
in collaboration with other interested countries so that responsibility for
Somalia is an international responsibility, not an American undertaking.
The United States should not see Somalia solely in the context of
counterterrorism, which it did until early 2008. This approach damaged U.S.
goals and interests in the region. Counterterrorism should be only a part
of the policy, not the entire policy.”
However, since Washington can not politically justify another attack on a
Muslim country nor be satisfied with a complete takeover of Somalia by a
so-called terrorist organization, the US will more than likely continue
training support programs in neighboring countries while quietly increasing
arms and munitions shipments to the TFG for counterterrorism operations.
The latest 40-ton weapons shipment should therefore be seen as a strategic
investment to protect US interests, part of which has now become a feature
of Somalia’s political economy.
The government of Uganda praised the shipment of arms from the US and its
government seems to have little reservations in supplying Ugandan forces
for the peacekeeping mission. Indeed, Uganda has become a valuable reserve
of inexpensive labor for the private military and security industry, as
thousands of its nationals are currently employed with American companies
in Iraq. Private security companies have since deployed to the Gulf of Aden
and Indian Ocean to provide maritime security for shipping vessels along
the coast of Somalia.
July will be a key month for East Africa. With troops gathering on the
Ethiopian and Kenyan-Somali border, the anticipation of an increased
political crisis seems inevitable. With one-third of the country’s
population in dire need of food aid, according to the BBC, and fewer places
to evacuate, Somalia is not likely any time soon to see a stable security
infrastructure that enables the US and other actors in the country a
feasible location from which to exploit natural resources or launch future
military campaigns.
Jody Ray Bennett is a freelance writer and academic researcher. His areas
of analysis include the private military and security industry, the
materialization of non-state forces and the transformation of modern
warfare
Publisher
Logo International Relations and Security Network (ISN)
International Relations and Security Network (ISN)
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