Somalia: not piracy catch all thread

[M-A Lagrange]

Well then let the tax payers who live in the countries whose leaders have installed this TFG foot the bill. You are not going to beat Al-Shabab with any number of (Christian) Ugandan troops by any stretch of the imagination.

I am not sure the christianity has something to do in that sad story. The somali do fear like plague the Ethiopian and the Ethiopian are christians. The Shebaab waited the ethiopian to be gone before attacking.

Also, I just found on the site of the foreign legion that they do train somali soldiers. Somehow I wonder how far this will blow in our face. Remember the training made on ship security... Now they are pirates.

But JMA you are right, I do not understand why we waste money in entertaining a ghost government.

[JMA]

I am not sure the christianity has something to do in that sad story. The somali do fear like plague the Ethiopian and the Ethiopian are christians. The Shebaab waited the ethiopian to be gone before attacking.

Also, I just found on the site of the foreign legion that they do train somali soldiers. Somehow I wonder how far this will blow in our face. Remember the training made on ship security... Now they are pirates.

But JMA you are right, I do not understand why we waste money in entertaining a ghost government.

Christianity has a lot to do with it as the Ethiopian Christians are seen as infidel invaders of a Muslim land. The current infidel "Christian" Ugandans are just just providing more grist to the Al Shabaab propaganda mill. If that were not reason justify violence enough then we would see issues arising between Shia and Sunni and in this case mix in the Sufis as well.

It is quite pointless to train people whose loyalty is in doubt and are likely to desert with weapons and equipment after training and join up with Al Shebaab. Actually it is not pointless it is criminally incompetent.

The only excuse these people have for wasting taxpayers is money like this is the standard reply "well you elected our boss the president".

[M-A Lagrange]

Uganda Peoples Defence Forces soldiers carry a coffin at Entebbe airport,

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010, of one the four soldiers that were killed in a mortar attack.
Uganda Peoples Defence Forces soldiers carry a coffin at Entebbe airport,Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010, of one the four soldiers that were killed in a mortar shell at the presidential palace in Somalia on Monday.

Uganda said Wednesday it is ready to send 10,000 more troops to Somalia if the U.S. provides the funding, a move that would see the African Union force in Mogadishu more than double in size.( AP)

[Rex Brynen]

Well, we may need to combine the "piracy" and "not piracy" Somalia threads...


In Somali Civil War, Both Sides Embrace Pirates

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
New York Times
Published: September 1, 2010

HOBYO, Somalia — Ismail Haji Noor, a local government official, recently arrived in this notorious pirate den with a simple message: we need your help.

With the Shabab militant group sweeping across Somalia and the American-backed central government teetering on life support, Mr. Noor stood on a beach flanked by dozens of pirate gunmen, two hijacked ships over his shoulder, and announced, “From now on we’ll be working together.”

He hugged several well-known pirate bosses and called them “brother” and later explained that while he saw the pirates as criminals and eventually wanted to rehabilitate them, right now the Shabab were a much graver threat.

“Squished between the two, we have to become friends with the pirates,” Mr. Noor said. “Actually, this is a great opportunity.”

For years, Somalia’s heavily armed pirate gangs seemed content to rob and hijack on the high seas and not get sucked into the messy civil war on land. Now, that may be changing, and the pirates are taking sides — both sides....

[IntelTrooper]

UN envoy calls for thousands more troops to battle Somali militants

Somalia may need to triple its peacekeeping troops to 20,000 in the coming months to combat a surging threat by militants, a U.N. official said.

"The threat level in Mogadishu and in southern-central Somalia has actually increased," Augustine Mahiga told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday.

Mahiga said he is concerned about the security in the country and its impact in the region.

"A scaled up assistance from the international community is needed to make a difference," said Mahiga, the special envoy to Somalia.

[JMA]

Who may I ask is running this war against the insurgents? And who should be paying the government forces or... who is stealing the money?

PM: Somalia to open 2nd front against insurgents

Kenya has a force of 2,000 Somali refugees stationed in northern Kenya, and Ethiopia trained a force of 1,000 fighters under a German-funded program.

[davidbfpo]

A good, short FP Blog article, with a map, which gives context to the reporting, repeats the fact external actors train Somalis for the government and they defect:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...ntrol?page=0,0

Some 9,000 troops have been trained and armed to help fortify the government, but desertion rates are astronomical. Perhaps no more than 1,000 soldiers -- or fewer -- remain. AMISOM peacekeepers, by contrast, number about 7,000.