Peacekeepers for Somalia approved : Uganda and Sudan to be the first..

[General Duke]

Peacekeepers for Somalia approved

- Saturday, March 19, 2005 at 15:20

 

 

East African governments have agreed to send 6,800 peacekeeping troops to Somalia from Uganda and Sudan, rather than from bordering countries.

 

The Ugandan foreign Minister said the decision was made out of respect for the sensitivities of the Somalis.

 

Somali warlords have said they will attack troops from neighbouring states - especially from rival Ethiopia - if they form part of a peacekeeping force.

 

Somalia's president was willing to accept troops from neighbouring states.

 

But a brawl broke out in the Somali parliament - sitting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi - after legislators voted against President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed's call to deploy peacekeepers from Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

 

Somalia's government and parliament are currently based in Kenya because the Somali capital, Mogadishu, is considered too dangerous.

 

The president wanted troops to help with the relocation of the administration from Kenya.

 

Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Ghedi said the parliamentary vote was flawed and should be held again.

 

Members of the East African regional body, Igad - who have been holding talks to try to end the row - said Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia would only help with logistics and training.

 

Igad also said Sudanese and Ugandan troops would be followed by troops from the African Union, but did not give dates for the deployments.

 

Source: BBC

[General Duke]

Uganda, Sudan to send initial peace force to Somalia

 

NAIROBI, March 18 (AFP) -- Uganda and Sudan will send the first batch of troops to Somalia as part of a regional force to help relocation of the country's government, still holed up in Kenya, regional ministers said here Friday.

 

"The initial deployment of troops shall be undertaken by countries of IGAD which are ready to do so now, namely, Uganda and Sudan," Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) ministerial chairman Sam Kutesa told reporters.

 

The IGAD ministers, however, failed to give specific date of deployment, the size of the force and the cost of the exercise.

 

Kutesa said that the remaining IGAD countries would only provide "logistics, equipment, emergency assistance and training of the Somali army and police" to the first phase of the deployment.

 

Last week, senior defence officials meeting in Uganda said IGAD planned to send a 10,000-strong force across Somalia except in the breakaway region of Somaliland.

 

In February, the African Union (AU) authorized IGAD to deploy an initial peacekeeping force to Somalia to help the country's transitional government relocate there from exile in Kenya, before AU troops get on the ground.

 

But hardline Islamic clerics have vowed to oppose the whole deployment while a section of warlords have objected to the presence in the force of soldiers from Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya which they say have ulterior motives in participating.

 

Somalia has been in chaos without any functioning central authority since the ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 turned the nation into a patchwork of fiefdoms ruled by warlords.