African Union Considers Sending Ethiopian
Troops to Somalia

18 November, 2011 | By Jeffrey Gettleman (New York Times)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

NAIROBI, Kenya — The African Union is considering an
ambitious plan to stabilize Somalia that could involve using
thousands of Ethiopian troops to open a new front against the
Shabab militant group, officials of the union said Thursday.

    The African Union’s
    peacekeepers are already
    battling the Shabab in
    Mogadishu, the capital, and
    Kenyan forces have recently
    begun fighting the Shabab in
    southern Somalia near
    Kismaayo. But the prospect
    of the Ethiopian Army
    returning to the country under
    the African Union’s banner is
    highly charged because of
    Ethiopia’s bitter history in
    Somalia.

An official of the Somali government said Thursday that
Ethiopian troops had already begun to move across the border,
discomfiting Somalia’s president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed.

Ethiopia has one of the largest armies in Africa and has often
clashed with Somalia. Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in
2006 to oust an Islamist movement that then controlled much of
the country. Sheik Sharif was one of the movement’s leaders,
and after hiding from the Ethiopians, he fled Somalia.

The Ethiopian troops remained for about two years, and their
occupation was hugely unpopular; thousands of civilians were
killed when the troops indiscriminately shelled urban areas. The
Shabab capitalized on the intense anti-Ethiopian feelings, and
their ranks swelled.

Western and African Union officials say the Ethiopians are now
eager to deal the Shabab a crushing blow and to install their
own proxies in Somalia, which could lead to even more power
struggles and factional bloodshed.

The Somali official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
because of the delicacy of the topic, said that Sheik Sharif was
not happy with the prospect that Ethiopian troops would return,
“but he has no choice” because his government ruled only a
small area of the capital and was powerless to block the move.
The Ethiopians are expected to work closely with Somali clan
militias in the Baidoa area and are not likely to enter Mogadishu
again.

A senior African Union official, who also spoke on the
condition of anonymity, stressed that any Ethiopian involvement
would be carefully coordinated with the existing 9,000-strong
African Union peacekeeping force, which has sustained heavy
casualties recently.

“The idea is to relieve pressure on Amisom,” the official said,
referring to the peacekeeping force by its acronym. “We’re
looking at how neighboring countries can assist, and we are
quite aware of the sensitive aspects.”

Somalia, which has not had an effective national government
since 1991, is rapidly becoming an arena where Kenya,
Ethiopia and even Uganda, which has contributed thousands of
troops to the peacekeeping force, vie for influence and use their
involvement in the war-ravaged country for leverage with
Western aid donors.

Many analysts accuse the African Union and Kenya of being
tone-deaf to the complicated politics in Somalia, where the
fledgling transitional government is struggling to defeat Islamist
militants, rally the populace to its side and extend its sway.

For instance, this week Kenya proudly announced a new
cooperation pact with Israel, under which Israeli experts will
help beef up Kenya’s counterterrorism forces, who already get
millions of dollars in assistance from the United States and
Britain.

Trumpeting the cooperation pact seemed to play straight into
the hands of the Shabab, who present themselves as the true
defenders of Islam in Somalia. The group immediately
circulated recruiting agents from mosque to mosque, telling
potential followers that the Kenyans were bent on a religious
crusade in Somalia and had teamed up with Israel.

Kenya sent troops into southern Somalia in October, initially
saying they were chasing kidnappers; it later said the incursion
was months in the making and was intended to clear militants
from a buffer zone along the Kenya-Somalia border.

On Thursday, Salim Lone, an adviser to the Kenyan prime
minister, defended the pact with Israel.

“This new international alliance will substantially strengthen
Kenya’s ability to protect itself from more terror attacks,” Mr.
Lone said. “But to succeed, it must be accompanied by a
related campaign to address the causes which breed extremism
among Muslims at the coast and the northeast,” the areas of
Kenya nearest to Somalia with the highest concentrations of
Muslims.

African Union officials said Thursday that the Kenyan forces
would soon be absorbed into the official peacekeeping
operation, and that the African Union would ask the United
Nations to authorize as many as 20,000 African peacekeepers
for Somalia.

                                      Courtesy
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