Outcry+grows+over+US+role+in+Somali+attacks,+D+Thompson,+City+Press

City Press, Johannesburg, 13/01/2007 18:38 - (SA)
=Outcry grows over US role in Somali attacks=


 * Desmond Thompson**

NAIROBI – Opposition to military strikes by the US on suspected terror targets in Somalia is mounting.

Eritrea has condemned the “turmoil” created in Somalia by the US and its ally, Ethiopia. Its president, Isaias Afewerki, warned the US that its actions would “incur dangerous consequences”.

This comes in the wake of aerial assaults this week by the US and Ethiopia on villages and other sites in southern Somalia said to harbour al-Qaeda members. A US official said the main target – three militants accused of blowing up the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1993 – was missed, but Ethiopia claimed up to eight “terrorists” had been killed. Their identities are not known.

South Africa has added its voice to the growing list of critics expressing concern over the role played by the US in the war in Somalia.

Dumisani Kumalo, South Africa’s ambassador to the UN, has reportedly said that US attacks in Somalia had complicated efforts to promote peace in the Horn of Africa. He was speaking at UN headquarters in New York, where South Africa took up a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council last week.

Late last year, the council endorsed plans by the African Union (AU) to deploy a multinational stabilisation force in Somalia, but progress on this front has been slow.

So far, only Uganda has made a concrete offer of 1 500 troops. South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana, Benin and Malawi are said to be considering the matter. Finality is unlikely to come before the next AU summit scheduled for the end of the month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Ban Ki-moon, the new secretary- general of the UN, has said he will attend the AU summit as a sign of his commitment to make resolving crises in Africa one of his priorities.

He has criticised “outside military intervention” in Somalia and has called for increased diplomatic efforts to find a solution.

Writing in a local newspaper on Friday, Michael Ranneberger, US ambassador to Kenya, said US involvement in Somalia was driven by two considerations – promoting national stability and fighting international terrorism. Somalia’s transitional government has supported US and Ethiopian strikes against terror suspects hiding in Somalia.

Thousands of Ethiopian troops helped the Somali government over Christmas and New Year to defeat fighters of the Somalia Council of Islamic Courts and drive them out of the capital, Mogadishu. – Media24 Africa Service


 * From: http://www.news24.com/City_Press/News/0,7515,186-187_2054677,00.html**

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