Museveni, Afewerki to pacify Somalia

[Ina Baxar]

Museveni, Afewerki to pacify Somalia
Museveni, Afewerki to pacify Somalia
FRANK NYAKAIRU, GRACE MATSIKO & AGENCIES
KAMPALA

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni and his Eritrean counterpart buried the hatchet yesterday and agreed on "practical steps" to bring peace to troubled Somalia.

The leaders held talks on Monday on the grim situation in Somalia, where troops from Eritrea's arch enemy Ethiopia are shoring up the government and Ugandan soldiers are deployed as peacekeepers.

Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki and Mr Museveni held their summit meeting in the Eritrean port of Massawa.

According to the Eritrean Information Ministry, both leaders were looking to take "practical steps" to restore calm in conflict-torn Mogadishu, where violence in the past four days has left scores dead and forced thousands to flee.

"President Museveni is attempting to bring President Afewerki on the same page with other Igad leaders after he expressed his opposition to Uganda's presence in Somalia," the Minister of State for Regional Cooperation Isaac Musumba said yesterday.

Eritrea last month urged Uganda to pull its peacekeeping forces out of Somalia immediately, warning of "dire consequences" if the recently dispatched African Union (AU) troops remain.

"What they want is to have the Islamic Courts Union as a legitimate government in Somalia. They do not recognise the Transitional Federal Government and the middle ground on this is President Museveni's mission in Eritrea," Mr Musumba added.
After the Massawa meeting, President Museveni returned home yesterday.

The AU has vowed to continue deploying peacekeepers in Somalia, brushing aside recent threats from an Islamist commander and attacks on its first deployments.
About 1, 000 of a total 1 500 Ugandan troops have already arrived in Somalia.

The AU plans to send a multinational force of 8,000 in total. In December, Ethiopian troops helped Somali government fighters oust a powerful Islamist movement from Mogadishu.

The African Union peacekeeping force aims to help restore calm in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, which has become a battle ground in the past week.
Ethiopia has justified military intervention in Somalia saying the Islamists, some of whom are accused of al-Qaeda links, had posed a threat after they declared a holy war against Addis Ababa.

Eritrea accuses Ethiopia of being a US "puppet", claiming that the United States was behind Addis Ababa's military action. A first Ugandan soldier was killed and five others wounded in Mogadishu on Saturday, sharply raising the stakes on the risky peacekeeping mission.

Meanwhile, thousands of Somalis were fleeing violence in Mogadishu on foot or by donkey, car or truck on Monday in an exodus that was massive even by the standards of a city that has become a byword for war.

But once away from the bullets and missiles of Mogadishu, the Somalis have to contend with thieves, hunger, thirst and lack of shelter, aid agencies and refugees said.

"I saw a young man taken out of a truck and killed in front of the passengers," said Imam Abukar Abdi Ibrahim, a clan elder from Mogadishu, after reaching the relative satety of Somaliland, a self-declared independent region.

He and other internal refugees who had reached Somaliland in north-west Somalia recounted how thieves were preying on those fleeing Mogadishu, stripping them of money and the few goods they had brought out with them.

"Some were robbed of their cars and had to walk for miles," Ibrahim added in Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland.

The United Nations sounded the alarm over the refugee situation on Monday, saying 47,000 had fled Mogadishu in the last 10 days and were living in appalling conditions.
Most had gone to the Lower Shabelle region south of Mogadishu, U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.



Just sad man. Ma tashade cid wehelisa la waayi maayo.
http://www.tvsomalilandeurope.net/