News

AU pledges troops for Somalia

July 28, 2010 Edition 1

KAMPALA: African leaders are pledging thousands of new troops for Somalia to fight |al-Qaeda-linked militants responsible for the twin World Cup bombings that killed 76 people, and the US says it will help bankroll the military campaign.

But internal documents show that African Union forces and Somali troops don't trust one another, and that Somalia's government "lacks consistency, coherence and co-ordination", raising questions about whether more AU troops can solve the Somali impasse.

African leaders and US officials called for stepped-up efforts in Somalia as an African Union summit ended yesterday. The summit opened only days after the July 11 bombings in Kampala, an attack that prompted Uganda's president to call for Africa to band together against Somalia's militants.

Al-Shabaab, Somalia's most-feared militant group, claimed responsibility for bombing two sites where people were watching the World Cup final on television, and said the blasts were in retaliation for civilian deaths caused by African Union troops in Mogadishu. They have also vowed to attack Burundi, the other African country that has been providing troops to the AU.

At the summit, Africa's leaders voted to dispatch 2 000 more Ugandan and Burundian troops as soon as possible to the African Union mission in Somalia, known as Amisom, boosting levels from 6 000 to the maximum mandate of 8 000.

The AU has commitments of 4 000 troops - 2 000 from Igad, a bloc of East African nations, and one battalion each from Guinea and Djibouti, AU commission chairman Jean Ping said at the summit's closing news conference. The AU is considering a request to raise the ceiling number for the total number of troops, he said, without giving a figure for the rise.

Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson, said that with a stronger AU force, the African Union force could defeat al-Shabaab, which intelligence officials say has been bolstered by foreign fighters from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"We believe it is necessary to have more troops on the ground and we in Washington have committed ourselves to support additional troops on the ground in the same fashion that we have supported the existing Burundi and Ugandan troops," Carson said.

But an internal report written last month by military experts from Igad, cast doubt on the efforts being made by Amisom troops. The report said there was a lack of trust between AU and Somali forces, and that the effectiveness of Amisom troops was hindered by the Somali government's many weaknesses. - Sapa-AP