By CIUGU MWAGIRU ciugumwagiru@yahoo.co.uk
After the international community during the London conference on Somalia at Lancaster House last week, there was no certainty about prospects of finally helping the troubled country to emerge from a long-drawn humanitarian crisis and regain stability.
During the meeting, which was attended by President Kibaki and other world leaders, it was acknowledged that Somalia needs urgent support from the international community if it is to emerge from its still precarious political situation.
According to reports on the meeting, the support is crucial given the fact that the country’s Transitional Federal institutions come to an end in August this year.
According to a Communiqué read at the end of the conference by British Foreign Secretary William Hague, participants agreed that the mandate of the transitional institutions should not be extended.
A report by Kenya’s Presidential Press Service indicated that there were however good developments regarding boosting support for Somalia’s transitional government in its efforts to re-establish control in the troubled country.
That was good news for Kenya, whose forces are already in Somalia trying to rout out Al-Shabaab militants.
The challenges for the Kenyan forces are many, though, considering that Somalia has had no effective government for more than two decades and the fact that its problems have in recent years been aggravated by Al-Shabaab rebels and other militant groups that control sizeable portions of the country.
While the 15-nation UN Security Council had on Wednesday unanimously agreed to increase the African Union force Amisom in Somalia from 12,000 to 17,731 troops, there were further positive developments when it also gave the African force a tougher mandate to attack Al-Shabaab Islamist militants.
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By the end of the conference, there were also promises to substantially increase international funding for the military operation through a resolution that increased international funding for its logistics.
Diplomats said the annual cost would increase from about $250 million a year to about $550 million, with the European Union being the biggest contributor to the Amisom fund.
While Kenyan troops already in Somalia will in future operate under Amisom command, thus reducing the cost to Kenya, Ethiopian troops, which have taken the Al-Shabaab stronghold of Baidoa, will not be part of the force.
In the meantime, the UN Security Council has ordered Amisom to move into new parts of Somalia and given it a direct mandate to go on the offensive against Al-Shabaab.
According to information released by the UN, Amisom was “authorised to take all necessary measures” with Somali security forces in order “to reduce the threat posed by Al-Shabaab and other armed opposition groups [and] establish conditions for effective and legitimate governance across Somalia.”
Even as the conference held in London came up with new proposals to resolve the crisis in Somalia that has turned the country into a failed state, debate was raging regarding the implications of foreign interventions in African countries, with Eritrea reportedly criticising what it referred to as “foreign meddling” in Somalia.
Among those who had earlier raised concerns about the issue of foreign interventions in Africa was former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is also a member of the African Union’s group of eminent persons
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/Leaders+fail+to+tackle+Somalia+humanitarian+crisis+/-/1066/1335260/-/13ycq7cz/-/
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