Somalia prepares for assault on al- Shabaab

Countries bordering Somalia are planning to coordinate a major assault against positions held by al- Shabaab militia in Somalia, using ethnic Somali military officers being trained in their respective boundaries.

Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti who share the border with Somalia are all training military personnel on behalf of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia, which though boxed-in by militias, enjoys international recognition.

Under the United Nations laws, TFG can request another UN member to train military officers on its behalf.

Independent intelligence reports suggest the assault could start “in the next few months” but will depend on the assessment of the preparedness of the recruits now being trained by the trio. The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is expected to offer logistical and moral support to the assault but will not directly participate.

“Our role will continue to be that of purely peacekeeping,” said Gaffel Nkolokosa, the public information officer of the mission in a telephone interview.

Responding positively

AMISOM’s spokesman Major Barigye Ba-Huko told journalists that Somalis are responding positively to the training by the peacekeepers that is intended to counter attacks by al-Shabaab.

AMISOM is, however, helping train Somalia military officers and even new recruits only within Somalia, its officials told the media.

Reports suggest that Kenya is training 3,000 army recruits on behalf of the TFG, Ethiopia 1,500 and Djibouti 3,000. These numbers were however not confirmed independently with the TFG government.

Although respective countries maintain that those being trained were proposed by the Somalia government, reports suggest that the trainees are ethnic Somalis drawn from the participating countries including Somalia itself.

Because of the geographical position of Somalia, ethnic Somalis are to be found in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti whose borders form an arch around the troubled country with one of the longest coastlines in the world.

Statistics drawn from several sources indicate that ethnic Somalis number around 15-17 million and are principally concentrated in Somalia itself at 9 million.

Others are to be found in Ethiopia (4.6 million), Yemen (a little under 1 million), Kenya (about half a million), Djibouti (350,000), and an unknown but large number live in parts of the Middle East, North America and Europe.

Intelligence reports suggest that as a result of this planned assault, al-Shabaab has also been strengthening its numbers by establishing a single command rather than its previous organization that comprised several militia groups, each with its own political head.

The militia group has also acquired freshly painted tanks that is has been parading in areas of Mogadishu where it controls.