Kenya Plans Assault on Militant Port-City in Somalia

[Mario B]

By SOLOMON MOORE

 

NAIROBI—Kenya's prime minister said his country's forces are planning a "final onslaught" against the Somali port city of Kismayo, al-Shabab's main supply center and funding source, before Somalia's planned Aug. 20 presidential elections.

 

"Without controlling Kismayo, it's very difficult to completely neutralize al-Shabab," said Prime Minister Raila Odinga at a news briefing in Nairobi Tuesday. The militant Islamist group supports itself by skimming profits from Somalia's second-busiest port.

 

Mr. Odinga said that Kenya requested military support from the European Union and the U.S., but he added that financial assistance was the more likely option. Mr. Odinga said EU and U.S. officials made support contingent upon Kenya's willingness to join the Ugandan and Burundian-dominated African Union occupying force in Somalia known as Amisom, which Kenya did earlier this month.

 

Kenyan troops entered southern Somalia in October to stem a series of kidnappings and killings along their common border that Kenya said threatened its security and vital tourism sector.

 

Since Kenya's incursion, al-Shabab has been weakened by the combined efforts of Amisom, Ethiopian, Kenyan and provisional Somali troops, who have driven the guerrilla force out of Mogadishu and other major population centers. But Kenyan troops have been reluctant to take on Kismayo, a southern coastal city of more than 150,000 people, because of the potential for heavy casualties such an urban assault would entail.

 

Mr. Odinga said he hoped that continuing development and stabilization efforts in Somalia would slow the tide of refugees into Kenya.

 

"Somalis belong in Somalia," said Mr. Odinga, who estimated that one million Somali refugees reside in Kenya. He outlined a plan to build new camps inside Somalia so that refugees could be persuaded to return to their country and internally displaced Somalis could receive support closer to their homes.

 

A series of terror attacks this year, along with the country's economic woes, have hardened Kenyans' stance toward Somali immigrants, whose communities are frequently targeted by law enforcement crackdowns in Kenya.

 

Mr. Raila said that Kenya's economic prospects remained patchy. Kenya may benefit from new oil discoveries in the northern Turkana region and a series of infrastructure projects including an oil pipeline from South Sudan and Ethiopia, new dams, railways and a seaport upgrading projects. But the economic crisis in Europe, Kenya's main trading partner, will continue to weigh on the national economy, Mr. Raila said. The prime minister also identified climate change as a continuing threat to Kenya's traditional pastoral livelihoods.

 

Mr. Raila projected the country's economic growth will range between 3.5% and 5.5% this year, still short of Kenya's growth before the 2008 global economic meltdown and a presidential election crisis resulted in widespread violence.

 

Mr. Raila, a leading candidate in Kenya's upcoming presidential elections next May, said he was glad that the International Criminal Court based at the Hague has scheduled trials for politicians accused of fomenting political violence in 2007 and 2008 until after the next poll. Mr. Raila expressed hope that Kenya's new constitution and judicial reforms would prevent another bout of violence by aggrieved political parties.

 

But Mr. Raila said poverty remains "the biggest political risk in Kenya."

 

"The gap between the haves and have-nots, that to me poses a potential for serious conflict in our country," he said. "It's like a time bomb."

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303444204577462450559659324.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[Mario B]

Lol, I wont be surprised if the Uganda's AMISON contingent reaches Kismayu before the Kenyans, flushing Al shaabab from Merka and Barawa on their way.

[burahadeer]

they scared of ugandans/burundians more so than kenyans.