Kenya Troops Advance in Somalia, May Push to Kismayo

[Thankful]

Kenya Troops Advance in Somalia, May Push to Kismayo

 

October 18, 2011, 10:56 AM EDT

 

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-18/kenya-troops-advance-in-somalia-may-push-to-kismayo.html

 

By Sarah McGregor

 

(Corrects to say that Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula attended the Mogadishu meetings rather than Internal Security Minister George Saitoti in fourth paragraph.)

 

Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Kenyan troops advanced deeper inside Somalia and may target the port of Kismayo in their drive to thwart attacks by the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, a defense department spokesman said.

 

The Kenyans and forces loyal to Somalia’s Western-backed transitional government have secured the towns of Tabda and Afmadow, which is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the Kenyan border, Emmanuel Chirchir said today by phone from the Kenyan town of Garissa. Heavy rains have slowed the troops’ advance, he said.

 

“The next town is Kismayo,” he said. “The troops are ready for anything. If it takes us to December they are willing to celebrate Christmas there.”

 

Kenyan Defense Minister Yusuf Haji and Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula flew to Mogadishu, the Somali capital, today for talks with President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on the military operation, Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said phone.

 

“Both the Somali government and Kenya government will collaborate to act against terrorist elements,” Suldaan Farshiid, a spokesman for the Somali presidency, said today by phone. “Kenya will assist logistically the Somali troops.”

 

Al-Shabaab Retaliation

 

Al-Shabaab vowed today to resist the Kenyan forces.

 

“They attack us by air and on the border; we must unite and fight back until we clear our territory,” a leader of the Islamist movement, Sheikh Hassan Abdulahi Hersi, said in a voice recording on Radio al-Furqaan, a station that supports al- Shabaab. “The Kenyan government will lose many people and assets because of its intervention in our territory.”

 

Kenyan soldiers entered Somalia on Oct. 16 after the kidnapping of foreign tourists and aid workers in Kenya that officials blame on al-Shabaab, which has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. Kismayo would be a key target because control of the port gives Al-Shabaab revenue and access to shipping lanes.

 

Somalia, on Kenya’s northern border, hasn’t had a functioning government, police force or court system since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Al-Shabaab has waged a four-year campaign to remove the transitional administration and controls most of southern and central Somalia.

 

Professional Army

 

“Kenya’s military is one of the more professional militaries in Africa, with particularly close ties with the British, and the U.S. has helped as well,” Thomas Cargill, assistant head of the Africa Program at the Chatham House research group, said today from London. “They are as well equipped as anyone in Africa, outside of South Africa and Angola.”

 

About 9,000 Ugandan and Burundian soldiers form the African Union-led peacekeeping force in Somalia. U.S.-backed Ethiopian forces invaded the country in December 2006 to oust the Islamist government that had captured southern Somalia.

 

Deteriorating security along the Kenya-Somalia border was highlighted by the Oct. 13 kidnapping of two foreign aid workers from the medical group Medecins Sans Frontieres by armed men from Somalia at a refugee camp in northeastern Kenya. Somalis fleeing famine and war have poured across the border this year and Kenya now hosts 590,000 United Nations-registered Somali refugees, three-quarters of whom live in the Dadaab complex, the world’s largest refugee facility.

 

Tourist Killed

 

British tourist David Tebbutt was killed and his wife, Judith, was abducted last month at a resort in Kiwayu, 503 kilometers southeast of Nairobi, and is being held hostage in Somalia. On Oct. 1, Marie Dedieu, a 66-year-old disabled French woman, was kidnapped from a house on nearby Manda Island by gunmen from al-Shabaab, Tourism Minister Najib Balala said in a statement posted on his Twitter account.

 

“I don’t think Kenya planned this in a week. They must have done a lot of background, and decided that it was necessary for Kenya to send troops into Somalia,” Ndungu Wainaina, executive director of the Nairobi-based International Centre for Policy and Conflict, said by phone today.

 

The Lamu archipelago, where the incidents took place, is one of Kenya’s main attractions for tourists who generated 73.7 billion shillings ($740 million) for the country last year, the second-largest foreign-exchange earner after tea. The U.K. government changed its travel advice on Oct. 1 to recommend that visitors to Kenya avoid non-essential visits within 150 kilometers of the border with Somalia.

 

Kenya is counting on a tripling of tourists to 3 million a year by 2015 to help achieve its goal of 10 percent economic growth.

 

“This intervention came about because of concerns about external perceptions of Kenya; the tourist industry is very worried because of these kidnappings,” Cargill said. “This is a response intended to try and address those.”

 

--Editor: Karl Maier

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

supporting the invasion of your country from a next door neighbor smh

[Che -Guevara]

"The next town is Kismayo,” he said. “The troops are ready for anything. If it takes us to December they are willing to celebrate Christmas there.”

 

N Sharif will join to celebrate Xmas....?

[Thankful]

Al Shabaab's key recruiting tool is manipulating the minds of young men and making them think that they are fighting for religion. They are so good at it, they can convience someone to attack students who want tonly to attend school. More so, the just held a news conference and bragged about sending young men to their deaths by way of suicide bombing. (Of course the leadership aren't the ones crazy enough to do it.)

 

I will not fall victim to this kind of brainwashing. Al Shabaab kills with no regard for human life.

 

President Sharif knows the leadership of this criminal organization well and I dont see him condemning this military action.

[xiinfaniin]

Alshabaab is bad, foreign invasions to further own regional interest is therefore good. There is a name for that kind of logic.

[Thankful]

Guarantee no one would be saying this if they were living back home. Of course because you are living in your nice coushy western country and not having to worry about standing in a line up and being blown up, you dont mind if Al Shabaab goes around killing people.

 

I believe foreign intervention is working in Mogadishu - despite Al Shabaab's constant war crimes.

 

The capital was safe enough to welcome the Turksish PM, who in turn has done incredible humanitarian work.

 

If Al Shabaab remains the way that it is, they will continue to kill our people like they did in Mogadishu. I will not stop mentioning this - they attacked students for wanting more education.

[xiinfaniin]

^^Well, no one is disagreeing you on the premise that Al shabaab are bad and ruthless. The debate is whether Kenya's invasion is the remedy. AMISOM proved to be a half measure. The fact students were blown to pieces in an area under AMISOM control is a testimony to that.

 

Kenya says it acted out of its national interest; her soldiers will not die for Somalia, they are sent to defend Kenya's interest. In light of some reports, Kenya's interest may go beyond security. Even absent of that, this invasion introduces another complicating factor in a conflict that proved very intricate and complex. And if the history of Alshabaab is any measure, they thrive in the kind of environment such invasion will ultimately create.

 

Those are the objections you need to address. Repeating 'Alshabaab kills people in great numbers' is neither here nor there.

[Yunis]

Thankful;752296 wrote:

 

President Sharif knows the leadership of this criminal organization well and I dont see him condemning this military action.

This type of reasoning is what will gain Al-shabaab more support, Kenyan towns are now more at danger then before.

and what - somali president not condemning this action? lol..

[Thankful]

Look I think we can agree that people were kidnapped from Kenya and brought to Somalia (whether Al Shabaab or not). Even though I am not sure if this has been 100% confirmed. I really doubt any country in the world would not react in a similar way. Also, I know I am not alone, because the TFG seems to support this action. They are in control of Mogadishu now and can regain cities further south.

 

Is there legitimate objections to this? By all means. If Kenya doesn't play this right and works with the TFG, this will all back fire. As well, Al Shabaab may try and use this as a recruiting tool, however, I believe that the unbelievable attack in Mogadishu has single handedly turned millions of people against them.

 

Al Shabaab's war crimes - which include kicking out aid agencies which has caused unbelievable suffering - are extremely important and can never be over-stated. They allowed their people to starve! Just picture yourself living in those area's.

 

This is about public opinion and I am not seeing the same condemnation and protests as you would expect. I believe this is because people are fed up with them.

[Yunis]

You keep on repeating al-shabaab ‘evil’ mantra that is not the argument here. But you keep side-stepping this monster didn’t exist prior to December ’06 and were the direct result of Ethiopian invasion, and we shall see what the Kenya invasion creates. You are also putting too much emphasis into a weak and incompetent TFG entity, Just reading their competing responses to the invasion itself is laughable.

[Thankful]

I guess it is just a coincidence that the area's that Al Shabaab controls in the south has some of the most fertile land in Somalia, yet, this is where the worst famine occurred in decades. It is quite clear they played a role in this.

 

If your argument is that a coalition of Kenyan and TFG forces will cause more problems, well I dont agree with that. I believe the sooner Al Shabaab is addressed the quicker we can get humanitarian aid to the poor and protect them.

 

Things can't get any worse.

[UZTAAD]

it is good news. any thing that can lead to the defeat of alshabaab is most welcome .

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

enough with this none sense about invasions people, when faced with the two options of submitting to terrorist who blow children up or getting outside assistance it should be clear to all sane people what the better option is.

[Faarax-Brawn]

Thankful;752312 wrote:

Look I think we can agree that people were kidnapped from Kenya and brought to Somalia (whether Al Shabaab or not). Even though I am not sure if this has been 100% confirmed. I really doubt any country in the world would not react in a similar way. Also, I know I am not alone, because the TFG seems to support this action. They are in control of Mogadishu now and can regain cities further south.

 

Is there legitimate objections to this? By all means. If Kenya doesn't play this right and works with the TFG, this will all back fire. As well, Al Shabaab may try and use this as a recruiting tool, however, I believe that the unbelievable attack in Mogadishu has single handedly turned millions of people against them.

 

Al Shabaab's war crimes - which include kicking out aid agencies which has caused unbelievable suffering - are extremely important and can never be over-stated. They allowed their people to starve! Just picture yourself living in those area's.

 

This is about public opinion and I am not seeing the same condemnation and protests as you would expect. I believe this is because people are fed up with them.

are you out of your bloody mind? what the fck is wrong with somalida? urgh!!!

 

Look, i hate AL shabab. I despise those killers. But to suggest that, it is ok for a foreign country to invade your country is INSANE. Your logic is actually illogic. Look, we ve been thru this road not so long ago. Ethiopia was a failed experiment...Kenya can not and will not be able to solve the issue of Somalia by invading it. Period. It is wrong. it is ill informed and it will fail.

[Faarax-Brawn]

Naxar Nugaaleed;752342 wrote:

enough with this none sense about invasions people, when faced with the two options of submitting to terrorist who blow children up or getting outside assistance it should be clear to all sane people what the better option is.

Let me guess what the better option is for you naxar? Invasion?