U.S. to step up efforts to train, equip African peacekeepers in Somalia

[unhappycamper]

http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.112189.1279968101!/image/3645521561.JPG_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/3645521561.JPG

Burundi peacekeepers prepare for their next rotation to Somalia. U.S. forces will step up efforts to train and equip African Union peacekeepers fighting Islamic militants in Somalia.


U.S. to step up efforts to train, equip African peacekeepers in Somalia
By John Vandiver
Stars and Stripes
Published: July 24, 2010

STUTTGART, Germany — U.S. forces will step up efforts to train and equip African Union peacekeepers engaged in a fight against Islamic militants in Somalia, the commander of AFRICOM said.

Gen. William “Kip” Ward, in a speech Tuesday at a Washington-based think tank, said U.S. policy would remain on course as his command looks for ways to lend more support to African Union soldiers deployed in Somalia to prevent the country’s weak transitional government from being toppled.

However, more than five years after a Transitional Federal Government was installed in Somalia with international backing, there has been little progress in ending the chaos and anarchy that has gripped the country on the strategic Horn of Africa since the government of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in January 1991. Al-Shabab, the home-grown Islamic militant group, has increased in strength and recently boasted it had spread its fight beyond Somalia’s borders, claiming responsibility for a bombing in Uganda.

Meanwhile, the turbulence on land has left Somali pirates free to wreak havoc offshore in the important shipping lanes off the country’s coastline.

In the six years since the U.S. adopted its containment strategy, there have been few signs of progress, prompting critics to ask if it’s time to find a new plan. Will more weapons, training and logistical support for peacekeepers make a difference? Are there alternatives that U.S. policy makers should be considering? Or is the current strategy the best choice among a series of unattractive options?



unhappycamper comment: I'll take more weapons and more contractors for $1000, Alex.