INTERVIEW-Somali president wants aid airlift for towns retaken from rebels
Sat May 10, 2014 10:59am GMT
* African forces leading campaign against Islamists
* Government needs the aid to shore up support
* President says new joint operations securing capital
* Somalia rebuilding donor trust after financial concerns
By Edmund Blair
MOGADISHU, May 10 (Reuters) - Somalia needs help airlifting basic supplies
to towns recently retaken by African Union-led forces because Islamist
insurgents who were driven out from those areas are blocking aid convoys,
the president told Reuters in an interview.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud accused the Al Shabaab militants of trying
to create food shortages in newly "liberated areas" to turn locals against
the state - and said the aid would show people the benefit of returning to
government control.
"This is the Al Shabaab propaganda ... and why they are stopping the
movement of goods," he said in Mogadishu after talks with major donors on
Friday on speeding up the pace of the rebuilding effort. "(An) airlift is
very, very important."
African troops working with Somalia's army have completed the first phase of
a campaign to retake territory still in Al Shabaab's hands after it was
routed from Mogadishu in 2011.
But officials said the towns cleared of Al Shabaab militants are in a dire
state. Any food stocks have been emptied, driving people away. Some centres
look more like ghost towns, said one Western diplomat, which "is not a very
positive picture".
It highlights the challenge Somalia faces in countering an Islamist
insurgency that increasingly involves guerrilla tactics, while trying to
build loyalty to central government in a state fractured by clan rivalries
and two decades of war.
The president said another obstacle to reaching retaken areas was the onset
of rains, making poor quality roads impassable even in places Al Shabaab
were not operating.
He said donors had promised to respond, adding that helicopters were not
needed to make a "huge food delivery" but were required for basic nutrition
for children and the weak.
The World Food Programme was considering contracting a helicopter dedicated
to humanitarian needs, as U.N. helicopters in Somalia now have multiple
tasks, including logistical support for troops, such as evacuating injured,
the diplomat said.
Although the first stage of the new campaign launched this year had not met
all targets, Mohamud said 3 million people and nine towns had been brought
under government control. He said Al Shabaab still controlled "a large
proportion of rural areas".
Extending control beyond urban centres and into the countryside where rebels
easily melt away has been a persistent challenge for African Union
peacekeepers, who are still the main bulwark against rebels although Somali
troops fight with them.
GRUMBLES ABOUT PROGRESS
"The second phase of the operation of course will focus on sifting out Al
Shabaab even from the rural areas," Mohamud said.
The slow pace of change in the nation and ongoing hardship for many has
fuelled criticism of the president, prompting a group of more than 100
lawmakers to submit a petition this week demanding he quit. Security
failings were a big complaint.
The president rebuffed parliamentary critics, saying new joint operations
between Somali security agencies and African forces was breaking down rebel
networks in Mogadishu, where a spike in attacks particularly around February
included an assault on the presidential palace in the heart of the city.
"Security should not be politicised," he said, adding it was tough to stop
all suicide attacks in a city of 2 million people.
Mohamud has also been buffeted by criticism of his government's financial
management, after two central bank governors quit last year with questions
raised about graft in government and the award of some contracts.
The government has dismissed reports of corruption.
But the president said a new Financial Governance Committee comprising three
Somali members and three picked by donors, was restoring confidence.
Diplomats said reviewing contracts and offering recommendations on such
issues were part of its mission.
"International partners showed that they are now more confident in the
system than before, and further reforms will be coming in the financial
sector," Mohamud said after Friday's talks, adding he hoped for more direct
budget support.
Qatar and Turkey already provide direct aid to state coffers, but Western
donors are more wary. Norway supports budget spending via a facility set up
with World Bank help that, one donor source said, could be expanded in
coming months.
Despite a wobble in international support for Mohamud over financial
management concerns in past months, donors at Friday's showed support for
the president in his battle with lawmakers, saying Somalia needed continuity
at the top.
"The idea of delaying everything or stopping everything and changing
institutions and people at this stage is not something that any of the
international partners were thinking is a very good idea," said one senior
Western diplomat at the talks.
Attendees at Friday's talks promised to speed up delivery of projects in
several key areas, such as security, humanitarian work and financial
management issues, by June in part to help ease public dissatisfaction about
the pace of progress.
(Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Andrew Heavens)