Somali PM seeks world's help
2008-12-02 17:44
Nairobi - Somalia is at a dangerous crossroads after nearly two decades of lawlessness, and urgently needs international help to stem an Islamic insurgency and rampant piracy off the coast, the prime minister said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein spoke days after Ethiopia announced it would withdraw its troops from the country by the end of this month.
The pullout will leave the Somali government vulnerable to Islamic insurgents who already control towns just a few kilometres from the capital, Mogadishu, and move freely inside the city.
"The international community should play their role now, and not tomorrow, to avoid any power vacuum," Hussein said in an interview from the patio of a hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.
Civilians have taken the brunt of the violence surrounding the insurgency, with thousands killed or maimed by mortar shells, machine-gun crossfire and grenades.
The United Nations says there are about 300 000 acutely malnourished children in Somalia, but attacks and kidnappings of aid workers and foreigners have shut down many aid projects.
Terrorist breeding ground?
Somalia has urged the United Nations to send a peacekeeping force, which the UN Security Council said was possible if the country can improve its security situation.
The United States worries that Somalia could be a terrorist breeding ground, particularly since Osama bin Laden declared his support for the Islamists.
It accuses a faction known as al-Shabab - "The Youth" - of harboring the al-Qaeda-linked terrorists who allegedly blew up the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Hussein said al-Shabab was recruiting from Somalia's disaffected youth, and that establishing peace might require reaching out to those youths with opportunities.
"We have young people who are jobless, who are utilised in this fighting," said the prime minister, dressed in a blue pinstriped suit.
Ideally, Hussein said, the Ethiopians would wait to withdraw until an international force is in place.
"I don't think Ethiopia will forget Somalia and leave like that," he said, but added that international groups should not delay sending their own forces.
Traditional rivals
The Ethiopian government has long said it wanted to withdraw after stabilising its neighbour, but its opponents say the mainly Orthodox Christian country with a Muslim minority was interested mainly in preventing an Islamist regime next door.
The two countries are traditional rivals, prompting many Somalis to see the Ethiopians as "occupiers".
A spokesperson for the Islamists, Abdirahim Isse Adow, said he was sceptical the Ethiopian would pull out, and said people have reported seeing more Ethiopian forces entering the country. The allegation could not be independently confirmed.
Still, he said: "A functioning government could be formed after the pullout of Ethiopian forces."
In the past, international forces have not fared well in Somalia.
A UN peacekeeping force including American troops met disaster in Somalia in 1993, when militiamen shot down two US Army Black Hawk helicopters and battled US troops, killing 18.
The troops from Ethiopia - the region's military powerhouse - have come under regular attack since arriving two years ago to help boost the Somali government.
But since then, they largely have been confined to urban bases, as have the 2 600 African Union peacekeepers in the country. They are just part of an approved 8 000-member AU mission yet to be fully deployed.
Ethiopian troops to withdraw
Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a dictatorship and then turned on one another, plunging the country into chaos. The transitional government was formed in 2004, but has relied on the Ethiopians for protection.
The lawlessness, meanwhile, has allowed piracy to flourish off the coast, with bandits in speed boats launching attacks on foreign shipping, bringing in an estimated $30m in ransom this year alone.
The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the possible consequences of Ethiopia's withdrawal.
"It has already been decided that we are going to withdraw at the end of this year," ministry spokesperson Wahide Belay said. "That is all can say."
- AP