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By Frank Nyakairu and Sahra Abdi
Nairobi, January 16, 2010 – Italy offered on Thursday to help form an
anti-terrorist police force for Somalia and urged other international
donors to fulfill pledges of support for the beleaguered government in
the Horn of Africa nation.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters after meeting
Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed that Italian military police, or
Carabinieri, were ready to train such a force in neighboring Kenya.
Two rebel groups hold sway in much of southern and central Somalia and
the government controls only a few blocks of the capital Mogadishu,
propped up by a 5,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force, Amisom.
Western nations say the chaos in Somalia, which has lacked central
government since 1991, is giving Islamist militants a safe haven to
train and plot attacks in the region and beyond.
"We offered to President Sharif to form a very robust anti-terrorist
police for Somalia," said Frattini after their talks in Kenya's capital
Nairobi.
The Amisom force has prevented insurgents from overrunning the capital
and driving out the Western-backed government, but government troops
have made little headway against the rebels.
Fighting since the start of 2007 has killed more than 21,000 Somalis and
driven 1.5 million from their homes. Washington accuses one rebel group
-- al Shabaab -- of being al Qaeda's proxy in the country.
The chaos on land has also allowed piracy to flourish in the busy
shipping lanes off Somalia. The International Maritime Bureau said there
were 217 attacks last year by Somali pirates.
Washington sent weapons to the government last year, but poor morale
among pro-government forces, who complain of not being paid, has led to
some of the supplies ending up in Mogadishu's main arms market near a
rebel stronghold.
Concerns about corruption and a lack of reliable mechanisms for
distributing financial support also mean pledges by other Western
governments have not always been carried out.
Frattini said Italy was also ready to give Amisom money to help it train
police in Mogadishu, and pay their salaries.
Earlier Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki had urged Frattini to lobby members
of the International Contact Group on Somalia to provide resources to
help stabilise the turbulent country.
Kenya hosts some 300,000 Somali refugees in refugee camps and there is a
significant Somali community in Nairobi. There have been reports of
rebel supporters recruiting fighters and young suicide bombers from the
diaspora within Kenya.
"The danger of terrorists has become very big in Somalia so we asked the
government of Italy how they can help security by helping build
government institutions," President Ahmed, himself a former Islamist
rebel, told reporters.
Source: Reuters, January 15, 2010
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