Kampala, November 28, 2009 – A few days ago, Garowe Online, a Somali publication, revealed that President Museveni is planning, for the first time, to visit Mogadishu in early December in an effort to boost the morale of Uganda’s 2,050 peacekeepers and to hold talks with the Somali President. Surprisingly, the story doesn’t seem to have been picked up by any of the local dailies. 

With all the threats from Al Shabaab, the insecurity in Mogadishu and the fact that AMISOM soldiers will not be paid for the next 6 months, it really doesn’t seem like the best time to take such a trip. Reading about the limited ability of AU peacekeepers to maintain control over a 4-kilometer strip of road does not boost my confidence: 

Snipers have taken over where bombers left off in Mogadishu, the war-wracked capital of Somalia where African Union peacekeepers are facing an uphill battle to counter the advance of Islamist insurgents.

Pinned-down peacekeepers here have orders to stay crouched behind their protective sandbags in the centre of Mogadishu.

"Otherwise, they'll take you out," said Lieutenant David Orejcho, one of 4,300 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers of the AMISOM force propping up the weak transitional government in the face of an Al Qaeda-inspired insurgency.

Orejcho's unit monitors the southeastern part of the city from a sandbag-cladded flat roof of an Arabian-style building with peeling paintwork.

"From here we can watch the whole avenue as far as the town centre," he says.

Watching is one thing, but moving about is fraught with danger for the peacekeepers from the moment they leave their headquarters at the airport and take the once grand avenue that leads into the heart of Mogadishu, now just a dusty track where the odd ramshackle vehicle weaves a path between potholes.”

Source: The Independent, Friday, November 27, 2009

Home | Contact us | Links | Archives | Search