Horn of Africa Conflict Prompts Tough Talk by US Administration News - Politics

The Obama administration has drawn flak from critics for seeking to engage with Iran and Syria, but it is talking tough with one country it accuses of sponsoring terrorism – Eritrea.
 
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned in Kenya Thursday that if Eritrea did not a stop supporting militants seeking to topple Somalia’s transitional federal government (TFG), the U.S. would “take action.”
 
“It is long past time for Eritrea to cease and desist its support of al-Shabab and to start being a productive rather than a destabilizing neighbor,” Clinton told a news conference in Nairobi, referring to the al-Qaeda-affiliated group that controls more of Somalia’s territory than does the government.
 
"We are making it very clear [to Eritrea] that their actions are unacceptable,” she added. “We intend to take action if they do not cease.”
 
Clinton was speaking after talks with Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the Islamist TFG president. Her remarks came on the same day that President Obama’s counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, said the president was urging a “more aggressive” fight against al-Qaeda.
 
In regular reports to the United Nations Security Council, the U.N.’s Monitoring Group on Somalia has since 2005 named Eritrea as a key violator of the arms embargo, a supplier of political, financial and military support to Islamist insurgents.
 
Another significant violator named in the U.N. reports is Yemen – “the primary commercial source of arms and ammunition for Somalia,” according to the most recent report, released last December.

In earlier Monitoring Group reports, the governments of Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Ethiopia, and the Lebanese terrorist group, Hezbollah, were also accused of supporting warring parties in the drawn-out, convoluted and shifting civil war that has wracked Somalia. (Most of those countries denied the charges, but the Monitoring Group said it stood by its findings.)

  But it is Eritrea that is the target of growing U.S. and international pressure to end its destructive involvement in Somalia. Eritrea consistently denies the allegations.
 
Growing threat
 
Currently, the TFG faces its most serious challenge yet from radical factions including al-Shabab, a group which the U.S. in February 2008 designated a foreign terrorist organization.
 
Al-Shabab emerged as successor to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a militant grouping that took control of Mogadishu in 2006 and threatened to unseat the TFG. Instead it was defeated by forces from neighboring Ethiopia which intervened to protect the embattled transitional authority.
 
Eritrea at the time supported the ICU. (Unlike other states that backed Islamists in Somalia, Eritrea is not an Islamic country, but a one-party socialist state ruled by an unelected president-for-life. Analysts say Eritrea views Somalia as a theater for its ongoing feud with arch foe Ethiopia.)

In 2007, exiled remnants of the routed ICU, including leader Hassan Dahir Aweys – an extremist whose ties to Osama bin Laden reportedly go back to when the Saudi terrorist was based in Sudan in the 1990s – set up a new Islamist faction, based in Eritrea.
 
Another former ICU leader Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, split with Aweys and successfully ran for TFG president last January. He is the leader Clinton met with in Nairobi this week.
 
Aweys returned to Somalia earlier this year as part of a new insurgent umbrella group, Hizbul Islam, sworn to fight the government of his former ally Sharif, now viewed as a sellout and Western puppet for embracing the secular transitional government.
 
Al-Shabab, formerly the youth wing of the ICU, also stepped up its attacks against the TFG while targeting African Union peacekeepers as well.
 
Fighting between the Islamists and government forces has escalated in recent months, with a quarter of a million Somalis reported to have fled their homes.
 
The U.S., U.N. and others accuse Eritrea of continuing to support both al-Shabab and Aweys’ group.
 
Safe haven fears
 
Clinton said Thursday there was no doubt al-Shabab wanted to seize control of Somalia and to “use it as a base from which to influence and even infiltrate surrounding countries and launch attacks against countries far and near.”
 
“Certainly if al-Shabab were to obtain a haven in Somalia which could then attract al-Qaeda and other terrorist actions, it would be a threat to the United States.”
 
She offered “very strong support” to Sharif, who said afterwards he had secured unspecified security pledges.
 
The U.S. has sent the TFG some 40 tons of weapons and ammunition this year, and State Department spokesman Robert Wood said at a press briefing Thursday the amount provided may be increased “at some point.”
 
Wood was also asked about reports that the U.S. had been quietly training some Somali forces near Djibouti. He declined to comment, but added, “we are obviously going to look for ways that we can help support that government to eventually bring stability to that region.”
 
Brennan, Obama’s counterterrorism advisor, said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Thursday that the U.S. was sharing intelligence with partners in East Africa “and building the capacity of their security forces to deny al-Qaeda safe havens.”
 
He did not specifically refer to Somalia in that regard, although during a question and answer session later did address the situation briefly, warning of the dangers of Somalia serving “as a safe haven and terrorist training camp.”
 
Brennan described al-Shabab as not only a domestic organization, but one with “tentacles outside in other areas.”
 
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported to the Security Council late last month that al-Shabab had confirmed the presence in its ranks of foreign fighters and had said that it was working with al-Qaeda to topple the TFG.
 
“The foreign fighters, many of whom reportedly originate from Pakistan and Afghanistan, appear to be well trained and battle-tested,” Ban said.
 
‘The window is closing’
 
U.S. officials’ comments about Eritrea’s involvement in Somalia have come close to accusing it of state-sponsored terrorism, although the country has not been added to the State Department’s list of terror sponsors.
 
Last year it was certified as “a country that is not fully cooperating with U.S. antiterrorism efforts,” a designation that carries a legal prohibition on the sale or licensing for export of defense articles and services.
 
In her press conference in Nairobi, Clinton did not elaborate on the type of “action” the U.S. may take against Eritrea if it failed to cooperate, although the U.N. Security Council is reported to be mulling sanctions.
 
Wood said in Washington he had no update on what may be happening at the U.N., but added that the U.S. wanted to see Eritrea stop its actions “and we’ll continue to push them to stop.”
 
During a Security Council briefing on Somalia on July 29, deputy U.S. ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the U.S. had repeatedly voiced its willingness to engage with Eritrea if that country ended its destabilizing activities.
 
“Unfortunately, Eritrea has thus far refused these offers,” he said. “And the window is rapidly closing.”
 
Eritrea, a country of 5.6 million a little bigger than Pennsylvania, was carved out of Ethiopia in 1993 after its inhabitants voted for independence.

Source: CNSNEWS.COM

• < Prev
• Next >