NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked group has warned African countries against plans to send additional troops to the war-ravaged country, saying they would be “annihilated.”
African leaders and U.S. officials have called for stepped-up efforts in Somalia after the country’s most feared militant group, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for twin bombings during the World Cup final in Uganda on July 11.
Earlier this week at an African Union summit in Uganda, Africa’s leaders pledged 4,000 more troops to aid the 6,000 Ugandan and Burundian soldiers now stationed in Mogadishu.
Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, al-Shabab’s spokesman, said late Wednesday that those 6,000 troops are already “suffering” from al-Shabab attacks, and that “whoever they bring in will end up in the same fate as his predecessor.”
“We are telling the African populations not to get duped by the mirage peddled by your leaders. Let your sons not be annihilated in Mogadishu,” Rage said. “Those who are pushing your leaders such as the U.S. and Europe and the like are in agony in areas they invaded. All the want is for you to share with their people the loss, mourning and cries.”
Al-Shabab said it targeted Uganda on July 11 because Ugandan troops have killed Somali civilians in Mogadishu.
Shelling is a near-daily occurrence in Somalia’s capital, and international rights groups have decried the deadly impact on civilians.
Al-Shabab is stirring up emotions against African troops, whose mandate includes protecting top Somalia officials and manning key installations in the capital. Islamic insurgents including al-Shabab have been trying for three years to overthrow the fragile, U.N.-backed government, which is holed up in a small section of the capital.
Civilians have suffered through nearly two decades of violent chaos in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, since the country’s government was overthrown in 1991. The AU force, known as AMISOM, has long been criticized by human rights groups for civilian deaths in Somalia, and internal reports obtained by The Associated Press show the mission itself is aware of the problem.
“The meaning of their claim that they are helping the Somali people is — to explain it to you — your leaders and sons massacring innocent populations through daily and nightly shelling,” Rage said.
This escalation follows the bombings in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, perpetrated by suicide-bombers sent by Somalia’s Islamist rebels of the Shabab group, which has links to al-Qaeda. More than 80 Ugandans and foreigners watching the World Cup football final on July 11th were killed.
If the Shabab’s strategy is to provoke Uganda and others into sending more soldiers so as to provide a bigger array of juicy targets for the Islamists, then Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, is obliging them. He wants to go after the Shabab with all guns blazing. If Uganda had a border with Somalia, he says he would already have invaded. Indeed, he is calling for a still larger African force of 30,000. As well as arguing for more troops, he has also persuaded the AU to let its force react more robustly; troops may now fire first if they think they face imminent attack.
The United States approves of Mr Museveni’s pugnacity and will cover the extra cost of the AU mission. The Shabab, says Johnnie Carson, America’s top diplomat for Africa, is “a threat to all of Somalia’s regional neighbours”. But Western intelligence sources say the risk of Shabab now carrying out bombings in Kenya and Ethiopia is higher than ever. And many veteran Somali-watchers are sceptical of Mr Museveni’s America-backed approach.
A bigger foreign presence means shoring up a Somali government widely derided for corruption and infighting. The Americans lament that they have given guns and training to thousands of troops under command of the transitional government yet they have failed to project power beyond a few heavily fortified streets in Mogadishu. Moreover, the Shabab has calculated, probably correctly, that ordinary Somalis’ mistrust of foreigners, especially armed ones, is likely to make them view the new AU arrivals as occupiers rather than liberators.
