SA, Nigerian troops to Somalia

2005-03-23 15:54

Nairobi - Nigeria and South Africa are willing to send troops to back a controversial deployment of regional peacekeepers to Somalia, a senior Kenyan official said on Wednesday.

The two military giants responded favourably to a request from Kenya, the host of the Somali transitional government in exile, to assist the seven-nation east African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) in setting up the peacekeeping mission, the official said.

"As our big brothers, we appealed to both Nigeria and South Africa to send troops ... and they are willing," Peter Ole Nkuraiya, the permanent secretary of Kenya's foreign ministry told AFP.

It was not immediately clear when or even if forces from Nigeria and South Africa would join the Igad mission of up to 10 000 troops which is expected to be replaced eventually by a broader African Union (AU) operation.

However, Nkuraiya said he believed Nigerian and South African troops would be on the ground to work with the first deployment of two battalions of Igad soldiers from Sudan and Uganda which could be deployed as early as next month.

Warlords

Meanwhile, Eritrea said it would not contribute troops to the Igad operation but may participate in the larger AU force.

Precise details of the mission are still being worked out amid a bitter dispute over the composition of the force within the transitional Somali government, whose relocation from exile the mission is intended to help.

Fierce opposition to the participation of neighbouring countries Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya in the force prompted a bloody brawl in the Somali parliament last week.

Amid continuing disputes, several Mogadishu warlords in the Somalia cabinet said Wednesday they wanted President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed impeached for his insistence that the three countries be included, and his desire to set up the government outside the bullet-scarred capital.

John Koech, Kenya's minister for regional co-operation, said Wednesday that despite the rancour, he believed the Somalis were serious about relocating to their homeland.

"I am optimistic that the government will relocate," he told reporters. "Although they fought in parliament last week, it does not mean the Somali people are not willing to relocate.

"Let's not be discouraged by a few problems like the fighting," Koech said.

Nkuraiya said Igad - which comprises Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and nominally Somalia - had agreed not to let the Somali peace process collapse.

"If all goes as planned, the first group of Somalis will relocate from Kenya on April 1, but if there is need to change the date we shall do that," Nkuraiya said.

- SAPA