http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/25/uk-kenya-somalia-idUKTRE7AO0GW20111125
Analysis - Ethiopia dragged reluctantly back into Somalia
By Richard Lough
NAIROBI | Fri Nov 25, 2011 11:45am GMT
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ethiopia is being sucked back into Somalia to open
another front against Islamist rebels battling Kenyan forces but even a
military victory is unlikely to end two decades of anarchy unless the
country's feuding politicians and clans want peace.
A small Ethiopian contingent rolled across the border on November 19 and
20, although Addis Ababa has publicly denied its troops are there. They
have revived bases used during its ill-fated 2006-2009 campaign to rid the
anarchic country of hardline Islamist rebels.
Regional leaders were meeting in the Ethiopian capital on Friday to discuss
ways of supporting Kenya's campaign. Mogadishu has said it would welcome an
Ethiopian force if there was an official mandate.
Kenya has leaned heavily on Ethiopia to send a much larger force to join
the assault against the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels.
But Ethiopian troops are unlikely to stray far this time, aware that their
last intervention was a rallying call for rebels, who portrayed Ethiopia as
Christian invaders in a Muslim country.
Kenya too has stressed it will leave Somalia once it has dismantled al
Shabaab's network and seized strongholds that provide the insurgents a
financial lifeline, potentially leaving a void for former warlords to step
into.
Somalia is a hotspot in the global war against militant Islam. But in the
two decades since warlords and then Islamist insurgents reduced its
government to impotence, a string of foreign forces, including American,
have failed to bring order.
"The Ethiopians can be none too happy with the state of affairs," said J.
Peter Pham, Africa director with U.S. think-tank the Atlantic Council.
"The Kenyans, having foolishly charged in with apparently little thought as
to realistic strategic objectives... are now bogged down and need an
additional front opened against al Shabaab to relieve the pressure on
themselves," he said.
Kenyan forces crossed into Somalia nearly six weeks ago in an incursion
designed to dismantle the militants' network.
While they initially advanced smoothly on rebel strongholds in southern
Somalia, the Kenyan campaign has stalled as al Shabaab fighters melt into
the population, while heavy rains and muddy terrain swamp its forces.
Ethiopian Foreign Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said this week any measures
against the rebels would be taken jointly with other members of the
region's IGAD bloc and the African Union.
ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY
Ethiopia is reviled across much of Somalia.
With tacit U.S. backing, and at the invitation of the beleaguered Somali
government, Ethiopia blitzed its way through Somalia in late 2006 and 2007
to rout another Somali Islamist administration from de facto power.
Washington said the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) had ties to al Qaeda. It now
backs a government led by a former ICU boss.
Al Shabaab rose from the broken ICU, its ranks swollen by a deep resentment
at the perception of Ethiopia as a Christian invader in a Muslim country.
"The Ethiopians understand all too well that their presence, as a Christian
nation, in Somalia could be propaganda for al Shabaab," said an African
Union official in Addis Ababa.
"They're not going to repeat that mistake twice," the official said on
condition of anonymity. "They will back up ASWJ, equip them, train them and
not stray too far," referring to the pro-Mogadishu Sufi militia group, Ahlu
Sunna Waljamaca, which is also closely allied to Ethiopia.
A second AU official said Ethiopian troops might push as deep as Baidoa,
about 250 km (155 miles) northwest of Mogadishu with an airport, to stretch
rebel lines and cut off some supply routes.
An Ahlu Sunna commander told Reuters the militia expected Ethiopia to train
4,000 fighters.
KISMAYU PRIZE
Kenya boasts it could seize Kismayu, a nerve-centre for rebel operations
and prized Kenyan target, any time it chooses.
The advance on the port city was still on and the country's navy has
blockaded the sea port, a Kenyan military source said. Kenya hopes to
starve the militants of huge revenues on inflows of smuggled contraband and
charcoal exports to the Gulf.
The lack of a significant blow to the rebels so far, though, has raised
questions about Kenya's troops numbers and strategy.
In 2006, against Ethiopia, a military giant in the region, the insurgents
squared up to the offensive and suffered.
"This time, they faded among the population ... even as they draw (Kenya)
deeper into Somalia, extending their lines of communication and supply and
allowing them to get bogged down in the unforgiving terrain," Pham said.
Some Western diplomats believe Kismayu will fall, but acknowledge their are
few answers to the question: What next?
"I don't think even within the political and military circles anyone can
tell you the end game, the exit plan," Ndung'u Wainaina, head the
Nairobi-based think-tank International Centre for Policy and Conflict said.
Kenyan troops might seek to switch berets and join an African peacekeeping
force. That, though, would require the United Nations to extend the force's
mandate beyond Mogadishu and raise the ceiling on troop numbers from the
current 12,000.
Western powers -- most likely the United States and European Union -- would
also need to stump up more cash.
"It's difficult to see how that could happen anytime soon given that the
salaries of the soldiers are paid for by the West. There's no stomach for
giving any more money to AMISOM," said a Western diplomat working in the
region.
Even if Kenya and its regional allies crush the rebels, military force at
best provides breathing space.
Critical is political reform, but Somalia's government has done little to
convince its neighbours it is capable of extending its sphere of power
beyond the capital.
The unelected government's legitimacy is already battered by internal power
struggles and corruption. Its reliance on yet another foreign incursion
might damage its credibility yet further if there is no swift political
follow up.
"There is a very real danger that al-Shabaab gets defeated only to be
replaced by nothing better than a collection of warlords whose depredations
gives rise to yet another insurgency, renewing the cycle of conflict and
prolonging once more the sufferings ordinary Somalis," said Pham.
(Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu, Barry
Malone<
http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=uk&n=barrymalone&>and
James Macharia in Nairobi; editing by David
Clarke<
http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=uk&n=david.clarke&>and
Philippa
Fletcher<
http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=uk&n=philippa.fletcher&>
)
----[Mailing List for Eritrea Related News ]----
Received on Mon Nov 28 2011 - 15:17:39 EST