• by Zach Rosenberg and Jim Lobe (washington)
• Thursday, October 01, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the leader of Somalia's beleaguered Transitional Federal Government (TFG), appealed here this week for increased U.S. and international security and humanitarian assistance for his efforts to defeat hard-line Islamist rebels and reconstruct his war-torn nation.

In remarks delivered to a standing-room-only audience at the influential Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Wednesday, Sharif complained that international financial pledges to support his government have been too slow to materialise.

'We received many promises and pledges, but, unfortunately, the government hasn't received the fulfillment of these pledges which has slowed down progress,' he said, stressing that bolstering the government's ability to provide security was critical for persuading the nearly four million Somalis who have become refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return home.

His remarks followed talks with U.S. officials and a visit to the United Nations in New York, where he addressed the General Assembly and spoke to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other African leaders last week.

Sharif, whose Islamic Courts Union (ICU) was ousted from power in Mogadishu by a U.S.-backed Ethiopian military campaign in 2006, has been championed by Washington since he was elected to the presidency by the TFG's parliament meeting in Djibouti last January.

The ICU has since splintered, and two of its former components, Al-Shabaab (The Youth) and Hizbul Islam, which in recent days have been engaged in fierce clashes against each other in the southern port city of Kismayo, have been fighting to oust the TFG under Sharif.

It was hoped that Sharif's election and his government's adoption of Sharia law, combined with the withdrawal late last year of Ethiopian troops from Somalia, would pacify the country by depriving the rebels of their religious and nationalist appeals. However, they remain in control of most of southern Somalia, as well as many neighbourhoods in Mogadishu.

While this was his first trip to Washington as president, Sharif met in August in Nairobi with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called him 'the best hope we've had for some time' and pledged that Washington would provide 'very strong' support for his government.

Last week, he also met briefly with President Barack Obama as part of a larger gathering of African leaders at the U.N. He is also expected to meet Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson here this week.

Under Obama, the U.S. has provided about 150 million dollars in bilateral humanitarian assistance, as well as at least 40 tonnes of military equipment worth some 10 million dollars — reportedly funneled through the African Union's (AU) peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM) — to enable the TFG, with AMISOM's help, to ward off efforts by the rebels to oust it from Mogadishu, the capital, and extend its influence elsewhere in the country.

Sharif, insisting that the United States has a 'special responsibility' to aid the TFG, asked for additional security assistance as well as humanitarian aid and help in reconstructing critical infrastructure. Specifically, Sharif noted a need for additional arms, military equipment and money for salaries.

In April, a donor conference in Brussels netted Sharif promises of 213 million dollars in aid. Only a fraction of that has reached Somalia to date, according to AU officials.

'The international community seems not be ready to do anything for Somalia,' Sharif complained Thursday, noting that even Washington's assistance has been 'very limited'.

While some observers here and at the U.N. were increasingly concerned as recently as three months ago that the TFG was on the verge of collapse, they are expressing more confidence that Sharif's government can hold on, even if it lacks the power to decisively defeat the insurgent groups.

'It's a waiting game now,' said David Shinn, a Horn of Africa expert at George Washington University who served as ambassador to Ethiopia from 1996 to 1999. 'Today, I think the TFG has a pretty good chance of outwaiting Al-Shabaab.'

Al-Shabaab, which the U.S. labels a terrorist group linked to al Qaeda, is trying to overthrow the U.N.-backed government and install a strict form of Islamic law similar to that imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is allied with Hizbul Islam, an umbrella group headed by Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former comrade of Sheik Sharif's in the ICU. Both groups are believed to be armed and supported by Eritrea.

Senior U.S. officials have expressed fear that, if successful, the loose-knit rebel coalition could, like the Taliban, provide a safe haven for Muslim extremists from other nations, including al Qaeda. While Aweys has disclaimed any connection to al Qaeda, Al-Shabaab has, if anything, exaggerated its links to the Pakistan-based group, according to Shinn.

Nonetheless, in mid-September, helicopter-borne U.S. Special Forces ambushed a convoy carrying Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, the leader of an al Qaeda cell in Kenya who, according to officials here, played key roles in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and a 2002 bombing of an Israeli hotel in Mombasa.

Nabhan had reportedly been living in southern Somalia with Al-Shabaab, three of whose militants were reportedly slain in the attack. Reportedly taken captive in the ambush was Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, a U.S.-born Somali who has played a prominent role in al-Shabaab propaganda videos.

Sporadic cruise-missile attacks by U.S. forces against suspected al Qaeda and Al-Shabaab leaders during Ethiopia's two-year occupation of Somalia are believed to have contributed to sympathy for the rebels and growing anti-U.S. sentiment in the country in part due to the fact that civilians were also killed injured.

Reaction to the last month's attack, however, appeared to be more muted, according to Shinn. 'There doesn't seem to have been much blowback in Somalia, perhaps because (Nabhan) was a Kenyan from Yemen,' noted Shinn, who added that the attack's precision eliminated collateral damage.

Several days after the assault, however, Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for a suicide attack against senior TFG and AU officials in at AMISOM's headquarters Mogadishu, claiming the lives of at least 15 people, including the AMISOM's deputy commander.

Sharif, who estimated the number of foreigners, including Diaspora Somalis, fighting with the rebels at between 800 and 1,100, was not asked about the attack or whether the government had approved it in advance.

AMISOM currently consists of about 5,000 troops. In his remarks to CSIS, Sharif called for the force to be enlarged to 8,000, the number authorised under a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Sharif also stressed that his government was 'willing and ready' to talk with insurgent leaders, some of whom have joined the TFG, and that the conflict could not be solved by military force alone, but rather by the government's ability to provide security and basic services to the people.

He also noted that, in addition to the failure of donors to comply with their commitments, both climate change, in the form of a three-year drought, and the global financial crisis, in the form of a decline in remittances from overseas Somalis, were harming the government's ability to make progress.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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