Savious Kwinika in Johannesburg and Tracy McVeigh
The South African cabinet is on the brink of sending troops into the ongoing conflict in Somalia, an official has told the Observer.
The revelation comes after the United Nations last week said that it was also considering sending in soldiers – Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, talked of a light presence in the capital, Mogadishu, and other parts of the country. The African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia is nearing its full deployment of 8,000 troops.
This weekend South Africa‘s government spokesman Themba Maseko said the cabinet would meet on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of sending troops to Somalia. Maseko said he was not able to reveal the nature of troop deployment to the country being proposed.
According to a high-ranking source, however, among the issues to be tabled will be a request from the AU that South Africa send in its National Defence Force to support the 5,000 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi presently in Mogadishu propping up the fragile interim government.
Somalia has been in a state of almost constant conflict since the collapse of the government of Siad Barre in 1991. The rise of Islamist militancy there has alarmed the international community and the country’s capacity to spark regional unrest has caused concern among its neighbours.
Violence has engulfed Mogadishu since the AU deployed peacekeepers in 2007 to protect the embattled government from Islamist insurgents who control most of the rest of the country. The deployment has come at a price: 70 people died in Uganda in July in revenge bombings over the country’s involvement in Somalia.
South Africa’s presence would significantly strengthen the embattled AU.
“Remember that South Africa is an African superpower, and they would want to be seen playing key roles in the affairs of Africa,” the source said. “It appears President Zuma will definitely give a nod to the AU’s request for South African military support. The South African government will definitely seize the opportunity to show the continent that they are the big brothers.”
Defence spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya remained non-committal. “The matter is now in the hands of the cabinet or President Jacob Zuma,” he said.
The AU force is engaged in frequent firefights with the Islamist insurgents that control much of southern and central Somalia. The main group, the hardline Al-Shebab, controls around 80% of Somalia and is thought to number up to 7,000 armed men, with a main force of around 3,000 experienced guerrilla fighters. Al-Shebab has an armed wing, known as the Army of Suffering, and a religious police known as Army of Morality.
Source:theguardian.com
