U.S. Has Sent 40 Tons
of Munitions to Aid Somali Government
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 27, 2009
The U.S. government has provided about 40 tons of weapons and ammuni
tion to shore up the besieged government of Somalia in the past six
weeks and has sent funding to train Somali soldiers, a senior State
Department official said yesterday, in the most complete accounting
to date of the new American efforts in the strife-torn country.
The official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity,
said the military aid was worth less than $10 million and had been
approved by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the
National Security Council.
"We do not want to see Somalia become a safe haven for foreign
terrorists," the official said.
Hard-line Islamist rebels allegedly linked to al-Qaeda have launched
an offensive to topple Somalia's relatively moderate government,
which has appealed to the United States and other African countries
for help. The fighting has killed 250 civilians and forced more than
160,000 people out of their homes in the past month, according to
the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
In an indication of the rebels' growing power, they held a ceremony
Thursday in the capital, Mogadishu, in which they chopped off a hand
and foot from each of four men convicted of stealing cellphones and
other items, according to news reports from the region. The
punishment was in line with the rebels' harsh version of Islam. The
United States considers the rebel group, al-Shabab, a terrorist
organization.
Somalia has been racked by violence since dictator Mohamed Siad
Barre was overthrown in 1991. U.S. officials say the bloodshed and
lawlessness in the country have caused a massive outflow of refugees
and contributed to an upsurge in piracy in the Gulf of Aden. The
country has also become a haven for al-Qaeda operatives alleged to
have carried out attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
in 1998, U.S. officials say.
The African Union has sent troops from Uganda and Burundi to help
Somalia's fragile government keep order.
The U.S. aid does not involve the deployment of any troops to
Somalia, where 18 American soldiers were killed in the 1993 raid
depicted in the movie "Black Hawk Down."
In order to strengthen Somalia's military, the U.S. government is
providing cash to its government to buy weapons, and has asked
Ugandan military forces there to give Somali soldiers small arms and
ammunition, the official said. The U.S. government is then
resupplying the Ugandans, he said.
The U.S. government will also help pay for the Kenyan, Burundi and
Ugandan militaries to train Somali soldiers, and is providing
logistical support for the African Union troops, the official said.
Clinton called Somalia's president, Sharif Ahmed, in recent weeks to
consult on the crisis, according to another U.S. official, who spoke
on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to
comment.
He said the U.S. aid would likely encourage other African countries
to do more to help Somalia's government.
U.S. officials accuse Eritrea of supporting the Somali rebels as
part of a proxy war with its rival, Ethiopia. But efforts by State
Department officials to meet with the Eritrean government have been
fruitless so far, the official said.
Source: Washington Post
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