No one on the continent has responded so far to the call for 8,000 African peacekeepers for Somalia, perhaps because it looks like it will be some time before there's enough peace to keep.
Uganda has promised about 1,500 troops, but not moved decisively to send them. Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Benin and Ghana, among the other nations on whom hopes were pinned, have been reticent on the matter.
"For us to send troops would be to enter a serious quagmire. We would be perceived to be fighting the US war on terror. Any peacekeeping force there would lose credibility," said a senior South African foreign affairs official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
After Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops drove an Islamic movement out of the Somali capital earlier this month, US, EU, African and Arab diplomats called for an African peacekeeping force envisioned at 8,000 soldiers.
Many African countries are already occupied with peacekeeping missions in other parts of the continent, so may be reluctant to take on the considerable challenge Somalia poses.
A UN peacekeeping operation in Somalia in the 1990s saw clashes between foreign troops and Somali warlords' fighters, including the notorious downings of two of the US military's Blackhawk helicopters in 1993. The Blackhawk debacle led to the US withdrawal from Somalia in 1994, and that was followed a year later by the departure of UN peacekeepers.
"There is strong thinking that foreign troops may not be the panacea everyone wants it to be," said Iqbal Jhazbhay, a Horn of Africa specialist at the University of South Africa. "The history of southern Somali since 1991 has shown that the area is averse to foreign troops even if they are African or Muslim."
A senior US official in Kenya said on Thursday that US diplomats were doing everything possible to persuade African countries to contribute to a new force, but that security was a major issue.
Nonetheless, the official, who was authorized only to speak on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday that he still hoped the vanguard of an African peacekeeping force would be in Mogadishu within weeks.
Nigerian troops are on the ground in Ivory Coast, Sudan and Congo, three nations still wracked with insecurity.
As to Somalia, Nigeria Foreign Affairs Minister Joy Ogwu told reporters on Thursday that no comment would be made on peacekeepers until after an African Union summit set for Jan. 29-30 in Ethiopia.
Like Nigeria, South Africa has been a major contributor to peacekeeping missions in Africa, with troops in Sudan's Darfur, Burundi, Congo, Ivory Coast and along the Ethiopian-Eritrean border.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS