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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Jul 22 2010 - 17:13:57 EDT
Offensives against Somalia's Shabab
What happened to those offensives against the Shabab?
Jul 21st 2010, 18:41 by R.C. | LONDON
TALKING to an American official this week who works on Somalia, I was struck
by how frustrated the Americans have become by the timidity of Somalia's
feeble Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in the face of an increasingly
confident Shabab Islamic militia. After the
<http://www.economist.com/node/16592642> dreadful bombings in Uganda two
weeks ago demonstrated the new ambitions of Shabab throughout the region,
those frustrations are bound to grow.
As is well documented, the American administration has been supplying the
TFG's forces with weapons and training. Apparently, the TFG now has "several
thousand troops" at its disposal. But a long-promised offensive against the
Shabab around Mogadishu, the Somali capital, has been postponed again and
again. One reason for this is in-fighting and splits within the TFG itself.
These have been, as the official put it in his most diplomatic language,
"incredibly destructive and distracting to the transitional process."
Translated, this means, roughly: "We are totally fed up with this bunch of
squabbling tribesmen who couldn't shoot their way out of a paper bag".
Unfortunately, from the American point of view the African Union force in
Somalia is doing little better. The Americans think that it should be more
"aggressive", and "taking territory". But with only about 5,800 troops the
AU force is under-manned, and it has a weak mandate. Yet the Americans still
rule out putting their own boots on the ground to supply a bit more muscle.
As usual, it seems that there are no easy answers in Somalia.
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