Ugandan troops in Somalia struggle on alone

[Jacaylbaro]

NAIROBI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The modest successes of a below-strength African peacekeeping force in Mogadishu should be an embarrassment to countries that failed to send promised reinforcements, the soldiers' spokesman said on Monday.

 

Earlier this year, the African Union agreed to deploy 8,000 troops to replace Ethiopians whose presence has inflamed an insurgency since they helped Somalia's interim government chase rival Islamists out of the capital over the New Year.

 

But so far only about 1,600 Ugandan troops have arrived. Since they began duties in March, no one else has come to help.

 

"Our presence in the mission area should be a stark reminder to the international community that they have a role to play in Somalia and cannot abandon that responsibility," Captain Paddy Ankunda, the mission spokesman, told Reuters by telephone.

 

"These people should be embarrassed that they have not helped us ... we will keep reminding all those who claim to be promoters of world peace that in Somalia they have not done so."

 

Various African nations had vowed to join the AU force. But lack of funds, unrelenting violence in Mogadishu and meagre encouragement from rich countries quickly changed their minds.

 

Shorn of support, the Ugandans have been restricted to securing the capital's vital air and sea ports, as well as the rubble-strewn city's strategic K4 junction.

 

They also guard President Abdullahi Yusuf, other government officials and visiting delegates. Five Ugandans have been killed so far by Iraq-style roadside bombs and mortar blasts.

 

In August, Uganda's military command said it was sending another 250 of its soldiers to bolster the mission.

 

 

DISTRACTED BY DARFUR

 

A lot of the peacekeepers' work has been humanitarian.

 

They have provided clean water to tens of thousands of residents uprooted by the violence, and have given free medical care to more than 25,000 people since they arrived.

 

"Among those we treated were 8,000 children," Ankunda said. "It is distressing, but why else are we here? We have to help."

 

Many of the Somalians they treated had been wounded by bullets and shrapnel from rockets and artillery strikes during an upsurge in fighting earlier this year that pitted Islamist-led insurgents and clan militia against government troops and their Ethiopian military allies.

 

The peacekeepers have also been defusing huge quantities of deadly, unexploded munitions -- much of it the legacy of years of conflict and chaos after warlords routed dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

 

So far they have made safe more than six tonnes of mines.

 

These actions have won them the support of many Mogadishu residents who are traditionally wary of outsiders, Ankunda said.

 

But the failure of nations to send soldiers to bring the force up to strength undermined the mission's mandate, he said.

 

Ugandans were surprised in August when African countries rushed to pledge troops for an expanded peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur region, while their troops waited in vain.

 

"This place is equally as strategic as Darfur," Ankunda said. "It has a coastline of more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles). It's an opening to the eastern world, to the Asian continent."

 

Last week, interim government leaders visiting Saudi Arabia appealed for a new Arab-African peacekeeping force under the aegis of the United Nations.

 

Meanwhile, the peacekeepers in Mogadishu are still waiting.

 

A team of military officials from Burundi visited the city a month ago to prepare for the posting of 1,700 troops. They had said they would deploy alongside the Ugandans in July.

 

"Now the United Nations is saying the Burundians will be here in October," Ankunda said. "But I'm not very sure."