Nigeria agrees to send troops to Somalia + S.A to decide + Funds ok'd

[General Duke]

Nigeria agrees to send troops to Somalia

 

January 25 2007 at 01:26AM

 

By Felix Onuah

 

Abuja - A battalion of Nigerian soldiers is expected to leave for Somalia in the next two weeks to join a planned African peacekeeping force in that country, Nigeria's defence minister told Reuters on Wednesday.

 

The African Union has proposed sending about 8 000 peacekeepers to Somalia to bolster the interim government after Ethiopian troops complete their pull out from the chaotic country.

 

Defence Minister Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi said the Nigerian battalion, which normally contains between 770 and 1 000 troops, is already undergoing training and waiting for supplies and logistics to move into Somalia.

 

"One battalion is what we are preparing to move immediately for the peacekeeping mission and we hope that within the next two weeks, they will move," Aguiyi-Ironsi told Reuters after a cabinet meeting in Abuja.

 

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday backed the speedy deployment of an African force in Somalia, which has not known peace for 15 years.

 

Many diplomats consider an African mission the answer to Somalia's myriad problems which defied UN and US peacekeepers more than a decade ago.

 

Such a mission is expected to help the interim government of President Abdullahi Yusuf stabilise and pacify the nation since the ouster of Islamists who ruled most of the south for six months before a two-week war in December.

 

Ethiopia has started withdrawing its troops, who provided the military muscle against the Islamists. But there are fears the government, which lacks a national power-base or truly popular support, could implode if that happens and the Ethiopians are not replaced.

 

Nigeria, a major contributing nation to African peace mission, also has troops in Sudan's Darfur region and Liberia.

[General Duke]

S. Africa to decide on troops to Somalia

 

South Africa would decide before the end of the week whether or not to send troops to Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission in that country, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Wednesday.

 

Pahad said at a news briefing here that the issue was being discussed at the cabinet lekgotla being held at the Presidential Guesthouse in Pretoria.

 

"We briefed the cabinet about the situation in Somalia and the Minister of Defense (Mosiuoa Lekota) will in the next day or two advise the president about our capacity and already stretched commitments," he said.

 

The deputy minister said President Thabo Mbeki was expected to take a decision on the matter before the end of the week. However, Pahad said last Wednesday that its defence force is over-stretched and was still considering troop contributions to an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Somalia, adding: "It is both the situation in Somalia and our own capabilities that will influence our decision."

 

Patrick Mazimhaka, the deputy chairman of the AU, said in an interview published in the Financial Times that an opportunity to foster stability in Somalia after years of war was being squandered.

 

This comes as Ethiopian troops who assisted the transitional government in December in ousting the Islamic courts from the capital Mogadishu and much of the rest of Southern Somalia, started withdrawing from the country, causing fears of a security vacuum.

 

"With every day that passes without a clear commitment to help the AU in Somalia, an opportunity is being squandered," Mazimhaka was quoted as saying.

 

The AU Peace and Security Council agreed to the deployment of the nearly 8,000 troops as part of the African Mission to Somalia (AMISON).

 

Only two countries, Malawi and Uganda, have so far pledged to provide troops for the mission.

 

Source: Xinhua

[General Duke]

INTERVIEW-U.S. ready to fund fast AU force for Somalia

 

By Mark John

 

BRUSSELS, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The United States is ready to offer more funds to help African Union troops deploy quickly to Somalia as Ethiopian forces wind down their presence there, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

 

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary on Africa James Swan called on other international bodies to provide urgent financial and logistical support to the AU as it struggles to raise a force of about 8,000 peacekeepers for the Horn of Africa country.

 

Swan said he had no information on a Washington Post report of a second U.S. strike against suspected al Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia on Monday and said U.S. policy was to support AU-led efforts to guarantee security.

 

"We are eager to see a rapid movement to deployment of the AU peace support operation," Swan said in an interview in Brussels with Reuters and a European weekly magazine after talks with EU officials on the conflict.

 

"To that end we have identified funding that could be made available to fund (air) lift and equipment initially for the Ugandans but that could also be available to other troop contributors later," he added.

 

Such funding would be in addition to the $14 million already earmarked by the United States for the AU force in a wider $40.5 million package announced earlier this month.

 

Somali government and Ethiopian troops defeated Islamist forces last month, but the Islamists have vowed to hit back and have attacked government and Ethiopian troops in the capital Mogadishu.

 

With troop commitments only beginning to come in from AU countries, there are concerns the AU will not be ready to fully replace an Ethiopian force which started withdrawing from Mogadishu this week.

 

Swan said Ethiopia was aware of the importance of not leaving a security vacuum by withdrawing too quickly.

 

"Based on frequent consultations with the Ethiopians we think they are acutely aware of the balance between limiting the amount of time they remain in Somalia ... but also the need to continue to provide security at least on an interim basis."

 

EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said this week further EU aid for the AU force would depend on its interim government reaching out to moderate Islamists and others in the quest for peace, a condition which angered some Somali officials.

 

While Swan said Washington sought to encourage "inclusiveness" in reaching a political solution to the conflict, he did not make it a condition for U.S. help.

 

"We would also hope that not only ourselves but that also other partners would provide additional assistance to the AU as it may request it," he said.

[Wisdom_Seeker]

Will they establish peace NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

 

Then there is no need for them to come to Somalia.

[General Duke]

^^^There is already peace, who is fighting and where? Oh some mortars fire in Mogadishu, what about the rest of the country? PEACE, QUITE and HOPE.

[Wisdom_Seeker]

^^^

You must not know what peace is.

 

If there was peace then we won’t need three months of martial law, we won’t even need these African peacekeeping troops.

 

You are one hilarious old man. Abti you and reality always contradict each other.

 

People in Mogadishu have confirmed more than ones that they don’t feel safe and reports are indicating that Somalia is slipping back into chaos.

 

Don’t point out other cities and compare them with Mogadishu. There weren’t a great deal of chaos in those cities before and Mogadishu is the capital city. The puppet president can’t even bring law, order and peace to the city he was suppose to rule.

 

The man must have lower rating than Bush

[ansaar17]

let them come for money, they will leave in body bags!!!

[General Duke]

^^^There is peace and a want of it, but because of the arge arms in the hands of the public there is lack of security. There are no clans hell bent on killing each other, no real rebel movements or even an insurgency, What there is in Somalia and specially Mogadishu is armed clan gangs, petty criminals, who have mortars, instead of mere knifes.

 

We have a country that has not had a functioning police, security forces. Thus its not politiucal peace that we are mising but the institutions which protect the citizens from themselves.

[Wisdom_Seeker]

You think the Ethiopian troops and TFG soldiers are being attacked customarily. These are deliberate attacks, if you haven’t yet realized that, you have a serious problem called Denial of the Truth.

 

The government is the one which needs protection. They can hardly protect themselves let alone the citizens.

 

Duke you are quite the amusement abti. You are running out of lies. You repeat ancient falsehoods which have being refute many times. You are starting to bore me.

[General Duke]

^^^Bore you, if so why are you in all my threads?

 

As for the attacks, indeed they where expected, a bomb here and there but nothing more.

 

The TFG is still building its armed forces, and security apparatus, so far so good, and the AU troops have always been needed from the beginning. Now the conditions are there for them to eneter the country.

[Wisdom_Seeker]

^^

 

Did you ever notice that you are by far the one who creates the majority of the threads in this forum?

 

Don’t flatter yourself, I am not in all of your Threads. But rather some, you even lie about me. You are utterly libelous

 

Anyways you can’t say there is peace when there is merely any. AU troops could come, they are more incompetent than the Americans and even they couldn’t succeed.

 

So we will see what happens when these so called Africans arrive, I won’t be surprised if they show their ineffectiveness.

 

Peace old man

[General Duke]

^^^Peace my sister, however dont say I lie, you are the DUKES new shadow, I dont mind though otherwise the place would be a bore.

[SomaliThinker]

were will this AU force be if its only in the south i think the people there would feel they are being targeted.

[General Duke]

^^^Why would they be targeted? The AU force will replace the Ethiopians in southern Somalia, their main mission is to secure the government institutions and economic centres such as the ports aiport and so on. They will go to Kismayu, Baidoa, Mogadishu and Lower Shabbele.

[SomaliThinker]

And i say again they will feel targeted. They will see regardless of the peace in the north that they up their have no A.U. forces while they do and the clan mind set will kick in, you and i know that Duke, somalis are and will for long time have a clan mind sit.