Saturday, August 01, 2009

With the new troops, more than 5,000 soldiers from Burundi and Uganda are now taking part in the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which began in March 2007 and has cost the lives of 17 Burundian soldiers.

"Burundi had already sent two battalions, or 1,700 soldiers, to Somalia as part of AMISOM," Burundian General Lazare Nduwayo told AFP.

"It just finished overnight the deployment of a third battalion of 850 men as part of this peacekeeping mission," the army spokesman said.

The deployment took place over four days with evening flights taking the forces from Burundi's capital Bujumbura to Mogadishu, he said.

"It is completely normal that we acted in secrecy without notifying the press... mainly for security reasons," Nduwayo said.

AMISOM is the only foreign force in Somalia, which has been mired in civil war since 1991. Islamist insurgents launched an offensive in May to topple a transitional government, which is backed by the international community.

In February, 11 Burundian soldiers were killed and 15 others wounded in a suicide bombing against their camp in Mogadishu, in the deadliest single attack against the force in the war-riven Somali capital.

"Burundi has decided to honour its decision to send peacekeepers to Somalia even though we do not know when the other countries will send their promised contingents," Nduwayo said. "But we hope that this will happen soon."

Nigeria, Malawi and Sierra Leone are among possible contributors to AMISOM, which was originally supposed to include 8,000 soldiers.

But the AU has so far failed to convince other countries to deploy troops to Somalia, where past UN and US missions ended in fiascos in the 1990s.

Ethiopia also deployed troops to Somalia in late 2006 and withdrew them in 2009.

The AU extended AMISOM's mission by seven months in June. The hardline Shebab Islamist fighters warned that the measure would only worsen the violence in Somalia.

Source: AFP, Aug 01, 2009

baghdad bob @ 8/3/2009 10:25 AM EST  fiqi This is the only way forward. once somalis understand that its impossible to take power by force by means of ones tribe clothed with different ideoligies only then will somalis start listening to each other. Dahir aweys refused to sit down with the government of sheikh shariff in the believe that he would clean the "dirt" as he once said, but now realizing that its impossible to win any war with the presence of the supperior firepower of AMISOM he might come to his sense. H made me laugh when he complained about the use of heavy arms by AMISOM, how naive! He thought the tanks were there to parade for him and not to wipe him and his misguided freinds.

fiqicigaal @ 8/3/2009 3:47 AM EST  The TFG neither has man power nor the means to build its own national army and rightly as some of you mentioned the neighbouring countries do not want to see a strong and able Somali army, they will do everything to undermine any initiative that will facilitate  the formation of a Somali national army. Never the less, i believe our people have grown to learn their friends from their foes, alshabaab's propoganda to fight AMISOM as foreign invaders will only fall into deaf ears, they can't teach this suffering nation new st*pid and deadly tricks any more. Therefore, i whole heartedly welcome the deployment of more African peacekeepers to maintain stability in the city to start with.

Abdi_2008 @ 8/2/2009 10:58 PM EST  Qaran, I couldn't agree with you more sxb. Alsh@bab and their affiliates only exist because of the presence of foreign troops. They thrive on it knowing Somalis have a history of fighting against foriegn invaders so it's clearly a strategic move for them by trying to "nationalistic" in the eyes of average Somalis but we know the ideology they bring is as much foreign to us than those of AMISOM.

Qaran @ 8/1/2009 11:30 PM EST  Abdi_2000: You are absolutely right. More foreign troops will not solve our problem but will only ignite. Alshabab (the enemy of the State of Somalia) will be eliminated by the Somali people if these foreign troops get out of our country. It's unfortunate that the TFG doesn't care to establish Somali National Army but it wants to count on clan support + foreign troops. Well it is not far when it will vanish unless it changes its path. It is clear that our neighboring countries who have a big stake in the TFG are cautious to build Somali Army, but what about the TFG itself?

DAACAD1 @ 8/1/2009 10:44 PM EST  LETS KICK OUT THE TORORIST THANKYOU BRUNDI