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For Nur Hassan Hussein, the newly appointed Prime
Minister of Somalia, last Wednesday was a moment of
relief. The 69-year-old was given a promise of
unwavering support by the United States (US)
Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice (PhD), who came
to Addis Abeba on December 5, to hold discussions
with heads of states of the Great Lakes region on
security concerns.
In a closed ministerial consultation on Somalia at
the Sheraton Addis, the Secretary reassured senior
regional ministers that the US would back efforts to
wipe out what she dubbed 'terrorists' from the East
African country.
"Counter terrorism requires good intelligence
sharing and good training of forces that can deal
with bad elements," said Secretary Rice implying
that the US is ready to aid and collaborate with the
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia,
established in 2004 in neighbouring Kenya.
The meeting included Secretary Rice, Jendayi Frazer,
US assistant secretary for African Affairs, Foreign
Minister Seyoum Mesfin, Prime Minister Nur, senior
ministers of the region and representatives of the
African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN).
Though Prime Minister Nur, who took office on
November 22, 2007, felt relieved with the commitment
of the superpower to assist his government, he was
in a state of dismay with what has brewed in the
cabinet he formed.
Four cabinet ministers resigned a day after swearing
in on December 2, claiming that their clan is not
adequately represented in the new Prime Minister's
government. Ethiopia also believes that the cabinet
hardly represents the population of Somalia.
"Frankly speaking, we have been deeply disappointed
by the cabinet that was announced three days ago,"
Foreign Minister Seyoum told Prime Minister Nur at
the consultation. "The TFG needs to be broadly
representative and include the opposition who are
not in any way attached with terrorists."
What disappointed Ethiopia, whose troops are still
in Somalia, is the fact that Prime Minister Nur, a
career public servant and lawyer who worked as a
senior police officer and attorney general, picked
almost all of his cabinet ministers from Parliament,
which, according to Ethiopia, does not fairly
represent the population.
"It is old wine in a new bottle," a senior official
at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) told
Fortune. "It is not a selection based on merit."
Though Somalia's transitional charter, established
in 2004, allows the selection of cabinet members
only from the 275-seat Parliament, a consensus has
been reached through the National Reconciliation
Congress three months ago to name ministers from
outside the parliament to balance the representation
of the populace that has so many clan divisions.
However, only two non-parliamentarian faces are
included in the cabinet of 31 ministers, and the
rest are members of the previous cabinet.
Despite his dissatisfaction with the Somali cabinet,
Foreign Minister Seyoum was thrilled with the
partaking of Secretary Rice in the consultation,
which according to him is a strong indication of the
US commitment to Africa.
"It would have been extremely difficult to make any
progress in terms of fighting extremism in Somalia
without your support," Seyoum told Secretary Rice.
Though Seyoum contends that much progress in
stabilising Somalia is apparent, pundits argue that
Ethiopian forces there are in a quagmire. Often,
reports have paralleled the Ethiopian operation in
Somalia to the US involvement in Iraq and
Afghanistan predicting the same fate lacking
resolution.
Though the first contingent of Ethiopian troops had
started pulling out of Mogadishu a month after they
were sent last December, no dates for final exit
from the country struggling with an intense Islamic
insurgency were given. Secretary Rice urged that
situation could not continue indefinitely.
"We do believe that Ethiopian forces should not stay
past a certain point," said Secretary Rice.
Peace has eluded the Horn of Africa nation after the
Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), ruling based on
Sharia law and functioning around Mogadishu and its
surroundings, was toppled. Unhappy with the
Ethiopian support of the TFG, on December 21, 2006,
Sheik Hassen Dahir Aweys, one of the UIC leaders,
declared from Mogadishu that Somalia is in a state
of war with Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian Parliament answered by approving a
bill authorising the government to take any
necessary measure to counter the threats to the
east. They enjoyed international backing as the UN
passed resolution 1725 on December 6, 2007,
authorising the entry of armed personnel to Somalia.
Ethiopia also claimed that the power vacuum that
existed in Somalia since Siad Barre's overthrow in
1991 posed a clear threat to its security, mainly
because Somalia had reportedly become a safe-haven
for Ethiopian armed opposition groups - namely the
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLF) - and created the risk of
opening another conflict front thousands of
kilometres away from the Ethio-Eritrean border.
The Ethiopian forces, subsequently, devastated UIC
forces and declared victory. In what was considered
a milestone, President Abdullahi Yusuf entered
Mogadishu and re-established his government in Villa
Somalia, the presidential palace that had been
unoccupied for the last 15 years. President
Abdullahi and his former Prime Minister Mohammed
Ghedi soon engaged in talks with local warlords to
ensure their support, while the Ethiopian Ministry
of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) was busy gathering support
to find lasting peace in Somalia.
The AU eventually agreed to send an 8,000-strong
peace-keeping force as part of the African Mission
to Somalia (AMISOM). Uganda was the first to make
good on its promise and sent 1,500 troops. Though
Malawi and Nigeria have made commitments to deploy
troops while Ghana was said to be considering the
deployment, so far it is only Uganda who lived up to
expectations.
Promising that they will be accompanied soon,
Secretary Rice forwarded her gratitude for what the
Ugandan forces are doing on the ground.
"We hope that you (Uganda) will not be alone
anymore," asserted Secretary Rice.
She then announced that the US would provide 59
million dollars to the Ugandan troops. However, Rice
made no official pledges for the Ethiopian forces
accompanying the Ugandan troops in Somalia.
The Ethiopian Foreign Minister nonetheless seems
unsurprised.
"We did not enter Somalia looking for financial
assistance," Foreign Minister Seyoum told Fortune.
"And we did not receive a penny from anyone."
Seyoum said Ethiopia does not need anyone's support
to protect itself from the Jihad that the UIC
declared on the country. He, however, stressed that
the peace-keeping should not be left for one country
to deal with.
"We cannot agree more on the urgent need for the
full deployment of AMISOM and helping the mission to
carryout its mandate," he stated.
According to Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, UN special
representative for the Somalia government (SRSG),
Somalia is a threat not only to East African, but
also for other countries and across the Gulf.
"It has also been a vast and ongoing human tragedy
for the last 17 years," the SRSG lamented.
According to the UN report, of the nine million
population of Somalia, three million are out of the
continent as refugees, while one million are
internally displaced. It is even worse in Mogadishu
where the Ethiopian-backed TFG forces and insurgents
are fighting major battles. The Islamic group's
fighters have been waging guerrilla warfare with gun
battles, grenade and mortar attacks devastating the
seaside capital.
This is fuelled by the high level of unemployment
existing in the country, which neither practices
farming nor industry.
"Youth are ready to shoot people and throw a grenade
for three to five dollars," Abdallah said of the
depth of the crisis. "Throwing grenades at
neighbours provides employment."
For the government of President Abdulahi, who was
elected at the Nairobi conference in October 2004,
the situation has worsened. Internal disagreements
were rife and triggered former Prime Minister Ghedi
to tender his resignation two months ago, leaving
the vacancy for Mr. Nur.
Participants of the meeting last week seemed
concerned, repetitively urging the Prime Minister
and the President to work closely to establish a
broad-based and inclusive government in Somalia.
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"The President and I are committed to spur peace in
Somalia with your continued support," Prime Minister
Nur assured the ministers and Secretary Rice.
The interim government, due to hold elections in
2009, is under pressure from international backers,
including Ethiopia, to reach out to the opposition.
"AMISOM should be supported and the constituency
should also be all inclusive," Samuel Assefa (PhD),
Ethiopian ambassador to the US, told Fortune.
Prime Minister Nur's government is the 14th attempt
to establish an effective central authority in
Somalia since 1991. |
