The African Union has agreed in principle to deploy a peace support mission in the troubled Horn of Africa state of Somalia, the AU said in a statement yesterday.
The mission, which will be the first multinational force in Somalia since the end of a failed UN-mandated intervention in 1995, is expected to help install the country's transitional government, so far based in neighboring Kenya for security reasons.
The African Union's Peace and Security Council (PSC) "accepts in principle the deployment of an AU Peace Support Mission in Somalia," said the statement, released after the body met on Wednesday in Addis Ababa, where the pan-African body has its headquarters.
The PSC also approved "the establishment of an AU Advance Mission to be based in Nairobi that will ensure liaison" between the recently-formed Somali government and other partners to "undertake preparatory steps for the deployment of an AU Peace Support Mission as soon as possible," the statement said.
Somalia has been effectively without a central government since dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991. In October, however, a parliament and presidency were set up in neighboring Kenya, pending their hoped-for installation in the Somali capital Mogadishu once the security situation there improves. Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was elected president on Oct. 10 by the new parliament.
Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi is expected to name his government this week, also in Nairobi, after the country's parliament sacked the first one that was formed in December.
In its statement, the AU urged the Somali government "to effect appropriate arrangements and all such necessary legislative enactments, including security arrangement, in order to facilitate the deployment of the African Union Support Mission for Somalia."
Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday urged so-called middle powers to become a “poisonous shrimp” to carve out strategic economic leverage in a more turbulent global environment. Sunak drew from a metaphor by former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀): A big fish will eat a smaller fish, and the smaller fish will eat the shrimp. Lee made the point a year after the Asian nation’s independence in 1966 that the city-state needed to build up its defense mechanisms — like a shrimp that stings — so it would be left alone by predators. “He was thinking about what Singapore’s
POLL POSITION: Democrats criticized the timing of the raid, saying that the US justice department historically avoids public investigations within 60 days of an election Federal agents on Monday searched the home of Democratic US Representative Ilhan Omar, a startling escalation in a criminal investigation that brings renewed focus to the frequent target of White House derision in the final weeks of her re-election bid. The search of the Minnesota congresswoman’s home so close to next month’s midterm contests that would determine control of the US House and the Senate was swiftly condemned by top Democrats in Congress, who raised questions about the timing given longstanding US Department of Justice (DOJ) protocol to avoid overt investigative steps involving political candidates in the direct run-up to an
A Rhode Island pumpkin grower appears to have broken the world record for the heaviest pumpkin, with his giant squash topping the record by nearly 136kg. Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island, weighed his pumpkin on Saturday at a contest in New England and is waiting for the Guinness World Records to confirm he smashed the record, set about a week earlier by a grower in England. Wallace said he has been in contact with Guinness officials who say his record is on track to be verified. “It’s truly massive, it was a pleasure to grow,” Wallace said on Monday. Guinness World Records lists
BUILDUP: The report comes as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi boosts defense spending in the face of China’s military expansion and the North Korean threat French defence contractor Thales will establish a maintenance and operational support base in Japan in what is seen as the first such move by a foreign firm in the country, a report said yesterday. Thales chairman and CEO Patrice Caine told the Nikkei business daily that the base “will mark a milestone toward Thales’ long-term engagement in Japan.” It is believed to be the first time a foreign defense company has established a dedicated base in Japan for the maintenance and operation of Japanese defense equipment, the Nikkei said. It added that Thales might also expand its Japan-based business to
RSS