NASSIR Posted May 14, 2010 "Most of the soldiers have concluded their training and are equipped with guns. What we are waiting for is the go-ahead from top officials," Dhagol said as dozens of soldiers, most earning about $100 a month, milled around. "It could be any time, maybe this afternoon." The government of President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed controls only a swath of the capital. The pending offensive is supported by the U.S. and European governments to try to end a nearly 20-year-old civil war and to uproot Islamic extremism at a strategic crossroads of Africa and the Middle East.... Tens of thousands of Somalis have fled the city in recent months. They have joined other families in makeshift camps on the outskirts; the United Nations estimates that 3.2 million Somalis, 40% of the population, need emergency humanitarian assistance. Many civilians feel targeted by both the government and the militants, Source Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NASSIR Posted May 14, 2010 Many Somalis already view the TFG, which was installed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations and the United States, as merely one more armed faction among the many. Abdi, the teenager who staggered into the Dadaab refugee camps, doesn't know whether the mortar attacks that killed his family and his three friends were the work of al-Shabab or the TFG, but he fears both equally. There is no quick fix for Somalia. But two senior U.N. officials made a good start today by urging an immediate halt to the recruitment and use of child soldiers by all parties in Somalia, not just al-Shabab. Other major outside players should take their own first steps by promoting measures that would protect civilians, ending unqualified support for TFG and AMISOM troops that break the laws of war, and pressing for a U.N. commission of inquiry to investigate abuses by all sides in Somalia. And they should stop sending mortars and mortar rounds to TFG and AMISOM troops until these forces stop using the weapons indiscriminately. Somalia's Saviors Are Making Everything Worse By Letta Tayler May 11, 2010 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
