By Peter Opiyo and Reuters
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Logistics and lack of technical support continue to hold back deployment of troops to war-torn Somalia. The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) member States, was told that though pledges to contribute one half of the required 8,000 troops have been reached, their deployment has not taken place due to lack of support to the contributing countries.
Speaking when he officially opened the 26th Session of the Igad Committee of Experts at Grand Regency Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya’s Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr Thuita Mwangi said training and financial support have also been lacking.
Even as the Nairobi meeting was going on, the recent clashes pitting Ethiopian and Somali forces against clan militia and insurgents killed at least 1,086 people and wounded more than 4,300, according to a local committee set up to assess the damage.
The committee’s report obtained by Reuters said 1.4 million people fled their homes in the Somali capital because of the March 29-April 1 battles.
A previous report by a local human rights group put the death toll at 381 people, in what aid workers have said was the worst fighting in Mogadishu for more than 15 years.
Fighting subsided after a truce was negotiated between elders from the dominant Hawiye clan and the Ethiopian army deployed in Somalia to support the interim government. Col Hussein Siayaad, a member of the committee which groups security officials and civil society activists, said his team had recovered 88 bodies from one square kilometre of land, noting that it represented only a fraction of the battlefield.
"This is a rough estimate and the number is going to be much higher because we have not ventured out of the main roads," Siayaad told Reuters. "The dead bodies are still there and it will take weeks to collect all of them."
And in Nairobi, the meeting heard that: "While pledges for contribution of peacekeeping troops have reached the half(way) mark, there has been delay in their deployment because of lack of technical assistance, training, financial and logistical support to the contributing countries." Mwangi told the experts there is need for a robust diplomatic offensive to convince the international community to support the States contributing troops.
Already the European Union has pledged assistance while the UN has been discussing logistics with Igad. Igad has been drumming up support for the contribution and deployment of African Mission to Somalia troops to replace Igad Mission to Somalia. This is in line with the UN Security Council resolution 1744 (2007) adopted in February.
So far only 1,700 troops have been deployed, courtesy of Uganda, Burundi and Nigeria.
Kenya is not eligible to send any. Represented at the meeting by Mr Thomas Amolo, Director of Political Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the PS said Igad should double efforts to ensure durable peace and sustainable development.
Source: Standard, April 11, 2007