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Somalia president calls for immediate peace force deployment
2007-01-05
President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed of Somalia has called for the immediate deployment of peacekeepers at crisis diplomatic talks on the conflict-stricken African nation. Friday's meeting in Nairobi of the United Nations, European Union, African Union, Arab League, United States and East African states came as the Somali government and their Ethiopian allies hunted Islamist leaders that were forced out of Mogadishu last month. US forces are also patrolling off the coast of Somalia helping in the hunt for the Islamists amid fears that an Iraq-style insurgency could grow out of the two week war in December. Yusuf, a former warlord, called for "the speedy deployement of African peace mission troops on the basis of" a UN Security Council resolution. He said his nation also needed financial, material and technical assistance. The United Nations has called for the deployment of 8,000 peacekeepers and Uganda has pledged troops. Other potential contributors include Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa and Nigeria. The Somali conflict has split the region, however, with Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan warning that peacekeepers would worsen the conflict, while Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda back the move. Analysts have warned that Somalis could reject any international force. Previous US and UN peacekeeping forays into Somalia in 1993-1995 ended disastrously. The international troops were forced to withdraw, leaving the country in shambles after more than 140 UN troops and 18 US Special Forces were killed. At the contact group meeting, Kenya, which organised a regional initiative that formed the transitional government, warned of renewed anarchy in Somalia if international support was delayed. "Failure to act immediately will lead to vacuum that would certainly be exploited by the warlords and other extremist forces," said Kenyan Foreign Affair Minister Raphael Tuju. In Addis Ababa, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi called for the "immediate deployment" of the troops so that the Somali government exercise its power, according to a joint statement. "I am glad to see your determination and I hope other African countries have similar determination," AU commission chairman Alpha Omar Konare told the two leaders. "We need to have an immediate response," he said, adding the African body would oversee the whole exercise. Fears of extremists moving into Somalia has renewed international concern over Somalia, where Ethiopia sent thousands of troops to help oust Islamists at the end of a 10 day war last month. The Islamists had taken control of much of the country. While the government and Ethiopian forces hunt Islamist leaders and fighters along the Kenyan border, al-Qaeda's number two has called for a jihad in Somalia, urging guerrilla tactics against the government. Ayman al-Zawahiri, told the Islamists to use the tactics that have inflicted mounting casualties on international forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a message posted on an Islamist website. "I call on all Muslims to respond to the appeal for Jihad (holy struggle) in Somalia," Osama bin Laden's deputy said in the message. "The real war will start with attacks against the Ethiopian forces of aggression." Somalia's Islamists have already vowed to wage a guerrilla war while the country's warlords, whom they ousted in June, have returned to the capital, raising fears of a new power struggle. In Mogadishu, a suspected Islamist hurled a grenade that exploded in in a camp housing more that 100 Ethiopian soldiers, but there were no casualities. The Nairobi meeting is the latest attempt to help the lawless Horn of Africa nation of about 10 million people, which has been in near continuous conflict since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Recurrent famine, drought and flooding has compounded the misery of the country's population.
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