webmaster
© Copyright DEHAI-Eritrea OnLine, 1993-2010
All rights reserved
From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sun Sep 19 2010 - 17:59:30 EDT
PM: Somalia to open 2nd front against insurgents
By KATHARINE HOURELD (AP) -
19/09/2010
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Several thousand Somali forces trained in neighboring
Ethiopia and Kenya will open a second front against Islamist insurgents by
year-end in Somalia's south and central regions, the prime minister said
Sunday.
The forces will try to capture key towns including the port of Kismayo,
which is believed to generate a substantial amount of revenue for the
insurgency, Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke told reporters in
the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
Kenya has a force of 2,000 Somali refugees stationed in northern Kenya, and
Ethiopia trained a force of 1,000 fighters under a German-funded program.
"Those forces have now completed their training and we are expecting them to
come back and really now open a different front," Sharmarke said. "Unless
you open different fronts you're not going to end this war."
The prime minister's comments follow a month of intense fighting between
Somali government forces and the insurgents, some of whom have pledged
allegiance to al-Qaida.
Government soldiers who had gone for months without pay abandoned key
positions in Mogadishu, many of which African Union peacekeepers had to
fight to regain. The prime minister was unable to say whether the new forces
would be consistently paid.
"Some forces are being paid today and then it will take them four or five
months to get another salary," he said. "You cannot expect those forces to
be loyal and defend the country when they're not getting ... what they're
entitled to."
An allied militia in the central region also was expected to help with the
new front, he said, although representatives of the militia alliance earlier
told The Associated Press that relations between them and the government
were strained.
Sharmarke said that the government would "definitely" deploy the
foreign-trained troops by the end of the year because they wanted to strike
while the Islamist insurgents were weakened.
A nurse at Deynile hospital, located in an insurgent-held neighborhood, said
that around 20 fighters had come seeking treatment a day over the past few
weeks instead of the usual two or three. The Associated Press withheld her
name to protect her from possible reprisals.
Somalia has not had a functioning government for nearly 20 years. The
current administration is protected by 7,100 African Union peacekeepers, who
are gradually expanding their bases throughout the capital in an effort to
recapture territory from Islamist insurgents.
Copyright C 2010 The Associated Press.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----