Som@li Posted June 1, 2009 Displaced children outside the capital Mogadishu on May 25, following renewed clashes. President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed urged the international community to help his forces fend off hardline Islamist rebels. Picture: Reuters By KEVIN KELLEY (email the author) Your Email Message Send Cancel Posted Monday, June 1 2009 at 00:00 The United States appears determined to prevent Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government from falling to Islamist forces said to be linked to Al-Qaeda. “We believe that it is important to do as much as we possibly can to support this TFG as one of the last opportunities for bringing about stability in that country,” Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson told the US Senate recently. Mr Carson noted that despite heavy recent attacks by the powerful Al-Shabaab insurgency, “The TFG remains standing.” The Obama administration will help sustain the government headed by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Mr Carson added. Pointing out that Sheikh Sharif is not a warlord but an educator, Mr Carson said the Somali president, who has been in office since February, “offers the best chance for a possible reconciliation and peace in Somalia that we have seen over the past decade.” The State Department’s top Africa official noted that Washington has given the TFG $10 million to establish a national security force while also contributing $135 million in support of an African Union force dispatched to Somalia in 2007. “We plan to continue this level of support in the future,” Mr Carson said in regard to the 4,800 Ugandan and Burundian troops who are protecting the TFG under the banner of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom). The United Nations Security Council is also giving unequivocal backing to Amisom, which is viewed as the final bulwark against an Islamist takeover of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. The 15-member council voted unanimously last week to extend its mandate for Amisom for another eight months. The council also agreed for the first time to help finance Amisom’s operations through UN member-states’ assessed payments, with British UN Ambassador John Sawers estimating that the funding could amount to $300 million in the coming year. At the same time, the Obama administration is being cautioned against giving direct military support to the TFG. “That would play into the hands of the Shabaab,” Prof Ken Menkhaus, a US expert on Somalia, told the same Senate panel that heard from Mr Carson last week. “The Shabaab have every interest in framing this current fight as Somalis versus foreigners,” Prof Menkhaus said. “They would love to attract Ethiopia back in. They would benefit enormously from US air strikes, were that to happen.” President Barack Obama has so far refrained from ordering missile attacks inside Somalia. The Washington Post reported last month, however, that President Obama is being urged by some military advisors to strike at Shabaab training camps. More Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
