Kenyan, Ethiopian leaders vow to stabilize Somalia + AU troops on route

[General Duke]

Kenyan, Ethiopian leaders vow to stabilize Somalia

 

Leaders of Kenya and Ethiopia on Tuesday vowed to push forward efforts aimed at stabilizing the situation in Somalia, which has been undergoing military operation for the past three weeks.

 

In a joint statement issued in Nairobi, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi also underlined their commitment to mobilizing regional and international support to help Somalia achieve peace and security and embark on the process of reconstruction.

 

"The leaders called for the immediate deployment of an AU-IGAD stabilization force to Somalia in line with the UN Security Council Resolution 1725 of Dec. 6, 2006," said the statement issued after a one-day visit by Meles.

 

"The two leaders welcomed the offers made by a number of African countries to contribute troops and invited other African countries to support the initiative," the statement said.

 

The Ethiopian premier's visit came as Kenya, which chairs a seven-nation regional peace body, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), is lobbying African countries to contribute troops to a peacekeeping force in war-ravaged Somalia.

 

Kenya has sent ministers and special envoys to ask Rwanda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, Tunisia and Algeria to contribute to a proposed 8,000-strong peacekeeping force.

 

So far only Uganda has offered a 1,500-strong troop, although parliamentary approval is yet to be gained.

 

During the meeting, the two leaders noted that the developments in Somalia, in particular the return of the Ethiopian-backed government to Mogadishu, was a positive development which presented a window of opportunity for the international community to consolidate peace and stabilize Somalia.

 

"In this regard, they agreed to intensify consultations between the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and the immediate neighboring countries in order to enhance the stabilization in Somalia," the statement said.

 

They urged the transitional government, which routed out Islamists from Mogadishu, to continue pursuing the consolidation of peace and the reconciliation in Somalia.

 

Meles thanked Kenya for the constructive role it had continued to play in the regional peace efforts.

 

He also expressed his gratitude to his host, President Kibaki, for the warm and brotherly welcome extended to him during the visit.

 

African Union (AU) officials are currently in Mogadishu to discuss peacekeeping at the invitation of the Somali government but regional diplomats said it is unlikely AU members would agree to send peacekeepers unless fighting comes to an end.

 

Source: Xinhua

[General Duke]

Kenya and Ethiopia agree to find help for Somalia

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By Standard Reporter and PPS

 

President Mwai Kibaki and Ethiopia Prime Minister, Mr Meles Zenawi, have called for deployment of African troops to the war-torn Somalia.

 

Zenawi, who jetted into the country on Tuesday morning, held talks with Kibaki on the need to deploy the African Union-cum-Inter-Governmental Authority on Development forces to Somalia, in line with the UN Security council resolution December 6, 2006.

 

Zenawi arrived un-announced in the morning and proceeded to State House, Nairobi.

 

The two later released communiquÈ in which they agreed on the need to immediately deploy an AU-cum-Igad peace keeping force to Somalia.

 

The two leaders welcomed the offers so far made by several African countries to contribute troops and appealed to other African countries to support the initiative.

 

Kibaki and Zenawi noted that the developments in Somalia and in particular the return of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to Mogadishu, was a positive development that presented a window of opportunity for the international community to consolidate peace and stabilise Somalia.

 

The two agreed to intensify consultations between Somalia’s TFG and neighbouring countries to enhance Somalia’s stability.

 

 

 

 

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[General Duke]

Mozambique looks at troops for Sudan and Somalia

 

Tue Jan 16, 2007 4:35 PM GMT

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By Charles Mangwiro

 

MAPUTO (Reuters) - A Mozambican military contingent is training intensely in preparation for possible deployment as part of peacekeeping forces in Somalia and Sudan, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.

 

Defence Ministry spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Joaquim Mataruca said the training began in December in response to U.N. and other requests for more peacekeepers.

 

"At the moment we are preparing a strong military contingent ... but we still do not know what type of missions or where the troops would be deployed," he told Reuters, declining to give any specific troop numbers.

 

Mataruca said Sudan and Somalia were likely candidates for troops from Mozambique, which in 2003 contributed its first troops for international peacekeeping operations as part of a contingent sent to Burundi.

 

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki recently sent ministers to seven African countries seeking support for a continental force for Somalia to help prevent anarchy after Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian forces ousted Islamists in a two-week war in December.

 

South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Monday Africa's economic powerhouse would consider sending troops to Somalia but military operations elsewhere may limit its ability to deploy soldiers to the Horn of Africa nation.

 

Ethiopia has said it wants to withdraw its troops from Somalia within weeks, raising fears the Somali government could collapse given its lack of popular support.

 

The African Union and East African body IGAD say they are willing in principle to send more than 8,000 peacekeepers into Somalia, provided funding is made available and member nations supply soldiers and equipment.

 

In Sudan's Darfur conflict, the United Nations this week said it would reassess whether to send peacekeepers to Chad and the Central African Republic after Darfur violence began spilling across their borders.

 

Sudan has more or less agreed to a "hybrid" African Union-U.N. force in Darfur but has rejected the 20,000 peacekeepers and police the U.N. Security Council wanted to send to support some 7,000 AU troops already in the region.

[General Duke]

East Africa seeks outside troop contributions for Somalia force

Posted to the MOL January 16, 2007, 5:05 pm

 

NAIROBI (AFP) - An east African bloc is asking eight outside nations to contribute troops to a proposed regional peacekeeping mission in lawless Somalia.

 

 

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has approached the countries to man the planned 8,000-strong force endorsed by the African Union and the United Nations but strongly opposed by Somali Islamists, officials said Tuesday.

 

 

The seven-member group has asked Angola, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zambia for soldiers to help restore stability after Ethiopian and Somali forces ousted the Islamists, the Kenyan chair of IGAD said.

 

 

"As chairman of IGAD, (Kenyan President Mwai) Kibaki has dispatched six special envoys to (the eight nations) to explore possibilities of additional troop contribution to the peacekeeping force," his office said in a statement.

 

 

The deployment of the mission, first approved by IGAD nearly two years ago, was repeatedly delayed by internal bickering in the bloc, funding and manpower woes and fierce opposition from the Islamists who controlled much of southern Somalia until last month.

 

 

The statement was released here after Kibaki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi met to discuss Somalia weeks after troops from Ethiopia entered the country to support its weak government against the Islamists.

 

 

"The two leaders ... welcomed the offers made by a number of African countries to contribute troops and invited other African countries to support the initiative," it said, without providing details of the offers.

 

 

Thus far, only one IGAD member, Uganda, has publicly offered to contribute to the mission and few others appear likely to do so as Somalia's immediate neighbors, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya are precluded from participating under a UN mandate.

 

 

IGAD has been deeply split over the proposal with Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and the Somali government in favor and Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan opposed.

 

 

Somalia has been without a functioning central authority since the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the country into anarchy.

 

 

The Somali government, created two years ago in Kenya, has been riddled with infighting and unable to assert control amid the threat posed by the Islamists who controlled Mogadishu from June until late December when Ethiopian and Somali forces expelled them.

 

AFP