Bullet-proof vests wanted for Somalia peacekeepers

[Castro]

A whole range of voices from the international community have been calling for an African peacekeeping force in Somalia as soon as possible to help create order out of chaois and insecurity. But is any country - other than Uganda, which has promised around 1,000 troops - prepared to put its soldiers where its mouth is?

 

In theory, everyone who needed to approve it has done so. The United Nations okayed the idea back in December, before the war between Islamists and the interim government. And the African Union (AU) and east African body IGAD say they're willing to send more than 8,000 peacekeepers. But given the challenges of pacifying a country where people carry guns like handbags, African nations seem reluctant to get involved.

 

Ethiopia - which dispatched the Islamists from Mogadishu and other key towns - has accomplished its mission and wants to withdraw its troops within weeks. But without Addis Ababa's muscle, Somalia's interim government - now precariously installed in Mogadishu - looks decidedly wobbly.

 

"What's happening here is that the government is asking for peacekeepers to establish their authority for them, so it's not surprising that people are sucking their teeth a bit," says Sally Healy, an associate fellow of the Africa Programme at Chatham House. "You can hardly blame them for saying 'after you'."

 

Even if they wanted to, African countries simply don't have the cash to send in the necessary troops and equipment without outside help. Uganda's Monitor newspaper reports that the government has written to the United Nations and African Union "begging for logistical support" as a troop battalion awaits parliamentary approval to deploy in Somalia. It needs not only money, but bullet-proof vests, hats and other military gear, the paper says.

 

The Ugandan Defence Ministry has reportedly yet to receive an answer, but there's a little more time because parliament is in recess and isn't due to restart business until January 30.

 

Providing parliament does give its blessing, however, those bullet-proof vests are likely to be sorely needed. Following the sorry failures of U.S. and U.N. peacekeeping missions in the mid-1990s (remember Black Hawk Down?), Healy says Somalis might be hostile to any outside force. And trying to operate in an urban environment where most people are fully armed would be "a very unhappy prospect", she adds.

 

Other African countries that might offer troops include Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Benin, Ghana and Malawi. But so far most countries are sticking to the line that they've yet to be asked formally for contributions.

 

Sudan gave signs months ago that it might be willing to send soldiers to Somalia, but that idea seems well out of the window now. Not only did it not approve of the involvement of Ethiopian troops in Somalia, but it's also got its own significant problems with worsening conflict in the western region of Darfur and shaky peace in the south.

 

Nigeria's foreign affairs minister has been quoted saying the Nigerian government won't comment until after an AU summit in Ethiopia on Jan. 29-30. The U.S. air strike at the beginning of this week may also have complicated matters. On top of that, some African nations already have peacekeepers in Ivory Coast, Sudan and Congo, and just don't have a lot of spare capacity.

 

Despite the apparent urgency to bring in a peacekeeping force to prevent a security vacuum, Healy says it probably wouldn't make that much difference: "The absence or presence of peacekeepers won't substantially change the prospects for stabilisation. The transitional government may be able to come to some arrangement with the warlords that controlled Mogadishu before the Islamists - but that is a political process."

 

Even if African countries do manage to stitch together a peace force, a few thousand more men with guns won't help Somalia's rival clans share power more equally or lead to a representative government with real popular support.

 

Reuters