Somalia homecoming : Government plans to be back in two months

[General Duke]

Somalia homecoming

Story by MBURU MWANGI

Daily Nation, Nairobi

 

 

The new Somalia government of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed will be back in its own country in two months.

 

But from next week the new president will begin a series of visits to countries in the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and then to other overseas states, seeking support, according to his personal assistant Mr Yusuf Ismail.

 

The timing for moving the government back to Somalia, decided by members of IGAD, was "most reasonable", said Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni.

 

"In one month, we believe the president will have appointed a prime minister, who will in turn name the government and in the other, they will be able to have completed plans to move to Somalia," said President Museveni, the IGAD chairman.

 

However, President Abdullahi could not say where the government will be based once it moves to Somalia.

 

He said that it would be up to members of the government to decide whether they will be based in Baidoa or the capital, Mogadishu, which has been left bare by the devastation of the civil war that has lasted 14 years. All government institutions, including Parliament and State House, have collapsed.

 

President Museveni was speaking yesterday at the Grand Regency Hotel, Nairobi, while issuing an IGAD statement on the Special Summit on Somalia. The talks were held at State House, Nairobi, on Thursday, soon after the new president was sworn in.

 

The leaders also issued a statement on the peace initiative in Burundi. The timetable for returning to Somalia will involve the reconstruction of some of the buildings devastated by the war which are crucial to running the government. Also civil servants had to be recruited to tackle emergency services and also troops were needed to oversee security.

 

The UN Security Council, which is considering meeting in Kenya between November 17 and 19 to discuss Southern Sudan, is expected to authorise deployment of the troops to disarm the militiamen and also to retrain the national police and armed forces. Each IGAD country, including Kenya, will be responsible for a number of trainees in the armed forces.

 

Immediately the government moves, it will need at least 1,000 teachers and possibly 500 essential government workers like clerks, an official in the talks told the Nation .

 

Kenya is likely to be asked to contribute immensely to the workforce and in building projects.

 

All the IGAD countries and those in the African Union (AU) are agreed that peace-keeping troops are a priority. In yesterday's statement, IGAD said it had resolved to take collective action against any person or group who directly or indirectly threatened the future of the country.

 

The IGAD countries are also ready in principle to volunteer troops to Somalia but it is feared they do not have the money to keep them there.

 

The African Union has a budget of $400 million (Sh32 billion) this year for peace keeping but it has been almost used up by the peace efforts in Burundi and Sudan. The international community is therefore needed to help foot the bill.

 

IGAD is believed to want around 7,000 peacekeepers, although a deputy speaker of the Somalia Parliament, Prof Mohamed Omar Dalhe, said they needed at least 20,000 soldiers.

 

Council members of IGAD have been mandated to undertake immediate missions to the AU, United Nations, United States of America, the Arab League and the European Union to brief them on the outcome of the election and the formation of an all-inclusive government.

 

"During these mission, the ministers will make a case for a peace-enforcement force in Somalia and funding for this force," said the statement read by Kenya Foreign minister Ali Chirau Mwakwere.

 

 

Source: Daily Nation, Oct. 16, 2004