The international community sought here on Thursday to mobilize both greater and more coherent support for Somalia’s beleaguered government and for the African Union peacekeeping force there.
The meeting by the UN General Assembly in New York took place as Somalia’s al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab militants launched a fresh offensive in Mogadishu, sparking clashes that medics said killed at least 19 civilians.
UN special envoy for Somalia Augustine Mahiga said the meeting on Somalia was an opportunity to hear Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed report on both progress and challenges carrying out the Djibouti Peace Agreement.
In a final statement, participants said divisions within the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) needed to be overcome with less than one year left in the transitional period. Transitional Federal Institutions also need to agree on post-transition arrangements in coordination with the international community and “reach out to more opposition groups that renounce violence,” the statement said.
The idea is to expand the government’s political base, it said.
Mahiga said the high-level talks offered “an opportunity to galvanize international support” for the government and to “mobilize resources” for the TFG and the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
In their statement, “participants called for increased financial support to AMISOM and stressed the importance of predictable, reliable and timely provision of resources to AMISOM,” it said.
“They also called for more support for the development of the Somali security forces,” it said. “Participants noted that gains in the political and security areas needed to be supported by reconstruction activities to ensure long-term stability,” it added.
African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping said the problem is not so much finding enough troops for the 7,000-strong AMISOM but raising enough funds to properly equip them and pay them decent wages.
Ping conceded that African peacekeepers had caused civilian casualties when Shebab fighters used markets or mosques to fire rockets at the force in a bid to draw fire on civilians.
“It is a strategy of the al-Shebab,” Ping said.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that while attending the meeting that progress was being made.
“There is a political consensus for well-coordinated aid for Somalia,” Frattini said.
“Members of the international community are convinced it is necessary to aid the Sharif government,” he added.
“A coherent strategy is needed to help the African Union pay for the efforts of the countries that have provided soldiers and also to multiply financial efforts,” Frattini said.
He said Italy pays the salaries of Somali police officers but added that the “European Union must do much more,” adding he proposed European coordination centered around the UN.
“The UN secretary general’s envoy [Mahiga] must coordinate all the efforts of the actors,” Frattini said.
“I’m persuaded that we would be ready to place the Italian efforts under UN coordination,” he said.
“We can’t have training of troops by French troops in Djibouti, training of troops by the Italians in Kenya and training of troops by the European Union in Uganda,” he added.
The participants included top officials from more than two dozen countries in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.
They also represented organizations like the African Union, EU, League of Arab States, Organization of Islamic Conference, and the UN.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘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