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Urgent East African Summit Discuses Somalia's Security

Peter Heinlein | Addis Ababa 05 July 2010

Somalia's president has painted a grim picture of his country's security conditions as he made an urgent appeal to regional leaders for greater support for his fragile government. Kenya appears to be bidding for a greater role in regional policy-making on Somalia.

The East African regional bloc known as IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) held an extraordinary summit Monday amid worrisome news about deteriorating security in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. An estimated 200,000 people have fled the capital since the beginning of this year, and recent reports suggest al-Qaida linked rebels who control much of the country are gaining the upper hand in Mogadishu as well.

The urgency of the matter was underscored by the attendance on short notice of almost all regional leaders, including Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and the host, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

The session was chaired by Mr. Meles, and attended by the Kenyan president

Somalia's transitional President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, speaking in through a translator, suggested that his western-backed government is in growing peril.

"The Somali state is facing a very hard attack from the terrorist groups which are allied with al-Qaida," Sharif said. "These problems need an urgent solution from the international community. And the delay in supporting Somali government gives time and support to the other side to be strong. The Somali government with what is in its hand is not able to face the challenges of the terrorist attacks."

IGAD executive secretary Mahboub Maalin told the summit's opening session the rebel forces are better funded and equipped than the transitional government.

"It is quite disturbing to listen to TFG (transitional federal government) officials when they reiterate the mismatch in capacity in provisions and supplies, organizational as well as remuneration between themselves and insurgents," Maalin said. "These factors will remain as long as recommendations by IGAD remain unoperationalized."

African diplomats, who spoke under condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly, say the summit's closed door sessions featured an attempt by Kenya to resume the lead role in regional policy-making on Somalia. That role was largely taken by Ethiopia after the internal political troubles that engulfed Kenya following its election in December 2007.

But it remains unclear what the weak regional bloc might be able to do to shore up the Sheikh Sharif government without a larger and more robust security force. The combined Somali security forces and the African Union peacekeeping mission AMISOM are able to control only small portions of Mogadishu, while rebels control large swathes of southern Somalia and the majority of the capital.