Quote Originally Posted by M-A Lagrange View Post
Does anyone have any info on the somali army training by EU?
MA,

Not sure about the EU training mission, although my recollection was that something was underway in Kenya.

Perhaps this NYT op ed's following paragraph explains why external training is not the answer, indeed maybe the "fuel" for the crisis:
Yet in the past 18 months, the international community has trained some 10,000 Somali soldiers to support this government, and American taxpayers have armed them. Seven or eight thousand of these troops have already deserted, taking their new guns with them. Indeed, Somalia’s Western-backed army is a significant source of Al Shabab’s weapons and ammunition, according to the United Nations Monitoring Group.
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/op...=1&ref=opinion

Alongside is Aidan Hartley's column on the Al Shabab leader, he is always worth reading and concludes:
What Mr. Roobow wants, as I witnessed on the road in Somalia, is a war against an alien enemy that will bring him international prestige and jihadi money before his group’s forces implode and his country’s people turn on him. The Uganda bombing is another reason the West has to find an intelligent diplomatic path out of Somalia’s crisis. A military backlash would give Mukhtar Roobow exactly the ammunition that he is looking for.
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/op...ml?ref=opinion