East African leaders to debate crisis in Somalia
July 5, 2010
Leaders of the East African regional grouping Igad are meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to discuss continuing political instability in Somalia.
They want the UN to replace the beleaguered African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in the country.
They also want international donors to honour pledges they made over Somalia’s reconstruction and reconciliation.
The UN-backed government only runs a few parts of the capital, Mogadishu.
It is under constant attack from hardline Islamist groups who control much of southern Somalia.
The BBC’s Uduak Amimo in Addis Ababa says that even before the Igad heads of state began their extraordinary summit on Somalia, they scored a small victory.
Somalia’s government announced the posts it was allocating to the Ahlu Sunnah Wal-Jamaa militia it signed an agreement with earlier this year.
Frustration
The amount of time it took for this to happen, as well as the incessant wrangling within the Somali government and parliament, were part of the reason for Monday’s urgently convened summit, our correspondent says.
Frustration with the Somali leadership’s failure to contain day-to-day violence in the country has been growing, she says.
The major headache for Igad is that there does not seem to be much commitment from Somalia’s political class or from the UN to helping the country out of almost two decades of political violence, she adds.
The government’s mandate expires in one year but it still has not met most of its objectives on reconstruction and reconciliation.
Previous Igad meetings have called on the UN to replace the 5,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force.
The UN has agreed in principle but has not set a date for the switch.
Analysts say few countries will be willing to risk sending their soldiers to the chaos in Somalia.
Igad has also reminded donors numerous times about their pledges to finance Somalia’s reconstruction.
But our correspondent say that this time it seems the Igad heads of state will strengthen their requests, have them endorsed at an African Union summit later this month, and thus make themselves and Somalia much harder for the UN and donors to ignore.
Source: bbc.co.uk/
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