Monday, November 21, 2011

Somalia: Kibaki seeks support from Arab world



By STANDARD REPORTER and Agencies
President Kibaki is wooing Arab support for Operation Linda Nchi against Al Shabaab, but is also expected to ask for more humanitarian aid for areas liberated by Kenyan and Somali forces.
Kibaki will be adding his voice to that of Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula who has been on a diplomatic offensive in the Middle East.
The President flew out on Sunday for a four-day official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is seen as crucial in the Arab world.
President Kibaki flew out on Sunday for a four-day official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is seen as crucial in the Arab world. [Photo: File/Standard]
Even though a statement from State House said Kibaki would hold bilateral talks with the President of UAE who is also the ruler of Abu Dhabi, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed, insiders said he is also there to seek their support for the ongoing offensive.
The President will later hold talks with the Prime Minister of UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Makhtoum and later meet the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed.
He will open Kenya’s Consulate General in Dubai and conclude his tour with an address to the Kenyan Diaspora in UAE.
On Saturday, Mr Lindsay Kiptiness, the Deputy Director, Horn of Africa Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Kenya had rallied the international community behind the military operation and that a crucial statement will come from the Arab world this week.
"Expect something to come from the Arab world before the end of the week," said Kiptiness.
Top Government officials among them Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka have also been in the Middle East to lobby support from the international community in containing the militants.
Well-placed security sources said there were initially concerns that the engagement of the Israeli government to strengthen the response ability of the Kenya Police Force could have sent wrong signals to the Arab world.
But on Sunday, a senior Government official dispelled the fears and said the Government was working with all countries it considers friends of Kenya. The assurance came despite media reports that sharp divisions had emerged in Government over the security deal Prime Minister Raila Odinga sealed with the Israeli government.
The KDF is working with Somali militias in what appears to be an effort to push Al Shabaab away from the border and possibly out of the lucrative port of Kismayu.
The question of whether or not Ethiopia has inserted troops into Somalia looms large as the operation to flush out Al Shabaab continues.
Dismissed reports
Although the Addis Ababa-based government of President Meles Zenawi has vehemently dismissed the reports as "absolutely not true", independent witnesses claim to have spotted Ethiopian troops.
Regardless, the presence of Ethiopia would sandwitch Al Shabaab between its troops and those of Kenya and Somalia, including militia friendly to the Addis Ababa regime.
The operation against the insurgents by the KDF and troops of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) enters a crucial phase this week with credible reports that an attack on the strategic Kismayu port is imminent.
Local elders told French news agency AFP that several hundred Ethiopian troops crossed into southern and central Somalia on Saturday.
Since its withdrawal from Somalia in 2009, Ethiopia has kept a wary eye over its border with Somalia due to an ongoing insurgency in its Ogaden region, where its troops are battling rebels of the Ogaden National Liberation Front.
Ethiopian troops often cross the border in search of the militants on the Somali side, but return to their side after such operations. Small numbers of Ethiopian forces have been reported operating in Somali border regions in the recent past, but witnesses said the scale of troop movements was this time far larger.
"There are several hundred Ethiopian troops here in lorries and some armoured vehicles too," said elder Abdi Ibrahim Warsame, speaking by telephone from Gurel town, in Somalia’s central Galgudud region.
Ethiopian forces were also reported in the Hiran region at the town of Beledweyne, some 30km (18 miles) into Somalia, an area where militia supporting the TFG are battling Al Shabaab terrorists.
Reports from the area suggest the militants with links to terrorist group Al Qaeda have already retreated from their positions in the area.
"They are here, the Ethiopian soldiers in trucks have reached Beledweyne with many forces," said elder Ahmed Liban.
"The Shabaab in the area are pulling back, away from them," he added. But Ethiopia dismissed the reports outright. "It is absolutely not true, there are absolutely no troops in Somalia," said Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti.
"People are simply speculating," he added. If confirmed, it would be Addis Ababa’s first large scale incursion since it invaded Somalia in 2006 with US backing.
Ethiopia pulled out three years later, but left a scarred and lawless country over which the TFG, backed by the African Union (AU) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development (Igad) has struggled to extend its authority, until the recent entry of Kenyan troops.
The Galgudud area is largely under the control of an anti-Shabaab militia called Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, factions of which have close ties with Ethiopia. Ethiopian soldiers were reported to be up to 50km (30 miles) inside Somalia in that area. There were no reports of any fighting.
AU officials and members of the regional peacekeeping body, Igad, held talks last week on bolstering the 9,700-strong African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom).
Amisom, whose commanders have repeatedly called for reinforcements, recently managed to regain control over 98 per cent of the anarchic capital Mogadishu. No decision for Ethiopia to join Ugandan and Burundian forces in the AU mission had been made, Dina said.
"There is an intention on the part of Igad members to bolster peacekeeping forces, because as you know the regional countries are working on increasing the numbers of Amisom. As to Ethiopian (troops), there is nothing that has been decided," Dina said.
Offered troops
Kenya has also offered troops for the force. Sources told The Standard yesterday there is a build up of military personnel in the southern sector of Jubaland, which is near the Kismayu port.
"We are now entering the second phase of the operation and that is the most crucial point of the exercise for the military," said the source based in the military. Al Shabaab militants have a huge military arsenal positioned at strategic positions in the southern Somali town with reports indicating they had mounted anti-aircraft launchers on tall buildings.
The KDF aided by TFG has quickly pushed Al Shabaab fighters out of small townships lying between the Kenya border and Baidoa, and put them in the control of the Transitional Federal Government forces.
Other residents told the Reuters news agency that the Ethiopians had set up a base in Guriel and moved troops to other towns nearby.
Residents and officials in northeast Kenya said that Ethiopian troops had also crossed through their towns and taken up positions near bases from where the Kenyan military is launching its offensive.
Some analysts say Ethiopia may want to take advantage of Al Shabaab’s withdrawal from the capital Mogadishu in August to wipe out a group it sees as a threat to its stability.
Since that pullout, the militants, who want to introduce a strict version of sharia law, have resorted to suicide attacks and guerrilla-style tactics against Amisom. Other people in the area, including some Ethiopian businessmen, told Reuters that Ethiopian army officers had been meeting elders in central Somalia for weeks.
Kenyan and friendly Somali forces have seized Kolbyo in southern Somalia and Baydhabo "could fall any time now," according to military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna.
Col Oguna told journalist in Nairobi on Saturday that locals were assisting with vital intelligence information, pointing out Al Shabaab fighters — who had melted into the population following punishing attacks — and their bases.
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