From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Jul 05 2010 - 15:01:54 EDT
Bloc promises extra 2,000 peacekeepers for Somalia
Mon Jul 5, 2010 4:25pm GMT
* AU peacekeepers to be deployed "immediately"
* IGAD wants 20,000 peacekeepers in Somalia
By Barry Malone
ADDIS ABABA, July 5 (Reuters) - An East African regional bloc promised on
Monday to send an additional 2,000 peacekeepers to Somalia, where an almost
powerless government is hemmed into a few streets of its capital by Islamist
militants.
AMISOM, an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force of 6,100 Ugandan and
Burundian troops, is struggling to hold back the rebels. The AU has
repeatedly asked for U.N. peacekeepers to be sent in but has only been given
funding.
"The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) decides to deploy
2,000 peacekeepers under AMISOM to Somalia immediately," Ethiopian Foreign
Minister Seyoum Mesfin said, reading an official communique to delegates at
a summit of the East African body in the Ethiopean capital Addis Ababa.
The statement did not say which countries would contribute more troops.
Diplomats on the summit's sidelines told Reuters Uganda was likely to supply
the biggest share of reinforcements.
The IGAD meeting was attended by heads of state from Somalia, Ethiopia,
Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti. The bloc also includes Eritrea but its
membership is suspended.
Western diplomats fear Somalia could emerge as a launch pad for attacks in
the Horn of Africa and further afield. Somalia's al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab
militants have previously threatened to hit Uganda and Burundi for their
troop contributions.
Residents of Somalia's mortar-scarred capital Mogadishu said several
insurgents were killed in fighting on Monday between the two Islamist
groups, al Shabaab and Hisbul Islam, which control much of the city and
central and southern Somalia.
"At least 57 civilians died and 146 others were injured in the last two
weeks in the north of Mogadishu," Ali Yasin Gedi of the Elman rights group
told Reuters.
20,000 TROOPS WANTED
The IGAD leaders, some of whom host Somali refugees in their countries, said
they eventually wanted 20,000 peacekeepers from the AU and the United
Nations in the country. A U.N. resolution bans Somalia's neighbours --
Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti -- from contributing forces to the hard-pressed
AU peacekeepers.
Djibouti planned to send 450 soldiers to Somalia in January to boost the AU
mission, but the resolution tied the hands of the small Red Sea country. The
region's leaders suggested the ban should be reconsidered.
"The Summit embraces the need to mobilise Somali forces internally with
possible intervention by neighbouring countries including (the East African
Community)," they said.
A confidential report issued following a meeting of East African chiefs of
defence staff last month, which was seen by Reuters, also recommended the
ban be lifted.
Rebel commanders vowed to launch a holy war against the AU forces and urged
the peacekeepers to quit Somalia.
"Uganda and Burundi, take out your boys before it is too late. You will run
away depressed like the U.S. and the Ethiopians who were more powerful than
you," Muktar Abu Zubeir, an al Shabaab leader in Mogadishu said in a voice
recording. (Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Mohamed Ahmed in
Mogadishu; Editing by Richard Lough and Peter Graff)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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