Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The issue of Somalia is among the top agenda items tabled for discussion in this week’s summit of African leaders.
Jean Ping told journalists that the commission continues to mobilize more troops for Somalia despite the current insecurity in that country.
“The situation on the ground is more serious than we expected,” said Ping.
According to Ping, there was expectation that the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS),- currently involved in peace talk- will control the bases left following the Ethiopian withdrawal.
However, Ping indicated that the situation resulted in an “unexpected” security threat both for the AU and the international community.
Ping was speaking following Monday’s seizure of Baidoa town, seat of the Somalia’s parliament, following the complete withdrawal of the Ethiopian forces from that country last week after a two-year stay.
According to media reports from Somalia, the Al-Shabaab Islamic militia, which has been fighting the TFG since the past few years took control on Monday the town of Baidoa, about 250 kilometres north-west of the capital.
Asked about this latest incident in Somalia, Ping said that it is not a “surprise” for the commission that the Islamists have taken control of the town.
“We cannot control the whole Somalia with three battalions of peacekeeping forces. The African Union peacekeeping forces are not also in this town. That is why it is not a surprise,” Ping added.
Ping indicated that the AU was waiting for the deployment of more troops from Uganda and Burundi as well as Nigeria. At present, around 3,600 Ugandan and Burundi troops are on the ground in Somalia helping the shaky TFG in stabilizing the country, which remains without a central government for the past 18 years.
The AU meanwhile continues asking its member states for more troops.
Source: APA, Jan 27, 2009