Kenya readies Somali Kismayo attack
Kenyan military officials in Somalia are planning to attack Kismayu.
Published: Sept. 5, 2012 at 2:05 PM
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Kenyan military officials in Somalia are
planning to attack the port city of Kismayo, which is a stronghold of the
militant group al-Shabaab.
In October 2011, Kenyan forces invaded southern Somalia with the stated
purpose of dismantling al-Shabaab. The forces are part of the African Union
Mission in Somalia.
Kenya signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union in June.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 2036 four months earlier authorized the
expansion of AMISOM from 12,000 soldiers to just more than 17,700. Under
AMISOM's policy, 5,000 Kenyan forces were reassigned to Sector 2, Middle and
Lower Juba, to work alongside troops from Sierra Leone.
The Kismayo assault comes as Somali members of Parliament prepare to choose
a new president under a U.N.-brokered peace plan in an election scheduled
for Monday.
In August militant al-Shabaab Islamic insurgents lost control of Merca,
Somalia's third biggest port city after Mogadishu and Kismayo, to AU and
pro-Somali government forces.
With 2,050 miles of shoreline on the Indian Ocean, Somalia has the longest
coastline in Africa, and analysts state that the capture of Kismayo will
boost Somali government revenue and improve trade between Somalia and the
rest of the world.
Two months ago Kenyan Prime Minister
<
http://www.upi.com/topic/Raila_Odinga/> Raila Odinga appealed to the United
States and European Union for fiscal assistance for a "final onslaught" by
on Kismayo. Kenya first sent troops under AMISOM command in 2011, with
Nairobi justifying the deployment by stating that it wanted al-Shabaab
defeated because the militants threatened its Kenyan security.
Kismayo is al-Shabaab's last stronghold in Somalia after the fall of Marka
and Afmadhow in the Juba area, The Star newspaper reported on Tuesday.
In 2011 al-Shabaab, which is affiliated to al-Qaida, withdrew from Mogadishu
after heavy fighting with AMISOM and Somali government forces. As Kenyan
AMISOM forces have moved through southern Somalia, al-Shabaab has mostly
avoided engaging them in direct combat.
Kismayo may prove different however, as it is the center of al-Shabaab's
finances. Al-Shabaab may prove unable to repel a direct assault however and
analysts say that its guerrillas may continue to disperse to rural areas in
southern Sudan or to other countries in the Horn of Africa.
There are worries that al-Shabaab may choose to use targeted killings in
Kismayo if they believe that they are losing the city to terrorize the
city's occupants from co-operating with AMISOM, especially as these types of
retaliatory attacks have been increasing in the capital Mogadishu and
accordingly AMISOM must be prepared to protect the civilian population if
this tactic is employed in Kismayo.
The Kenyan Somali deployments have given the Kenyan contingent of AMISOM
combat experience beyond previous perceptions of its being a relatively
untested "career army" that might soon gain experience in urban guerrilla
warfare should al-Shabaab decide to defend Kismayo. As a result of its
AMISOM Somali deployments Kenya is becoming an important element in an
increasingly successful, coordinated regional effort to address security
problems, which ultimately may provide Somalia's Transitional Federal
Government the political and economic space it needs to consolidate its
progress in Somalia.
Read more:
<
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2012/09/05/Kenya-readies-Somali-Kismayo
-attack/UPI-32781346868314/#ixzz25cuvJJat>
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2012/09/05/Kenya-readies-Somali-Kismayo-
attack/UPI-32781346868314/#ixzz25cuvJJat
Received on Wed Sep 05 2012 - 18:58:42 EDT
