Leaders blast US for soft stance on Somalia

Key African partners of US interests in the Horn of Africa have expressed their frustration at the on-off manner in which support for Amisom is disbursed.

This was during a meeting that lasted four hours on the sidelines of the AU summit in Kampala on July 26.

“We deployed in Somalia but we are not getting adequate support from the international community.
“We don’t get money when we need it and you give it to us when it suits you,” Uganda’s President Museveni is reported to have told US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jonnie Carson.

The meeting was attended by South African President Jacob Zuma, Tanzania’s Jakaya Kikwete, Kenya’s Mwai Kibaki, Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, TFG President Sheik Shariff Ahmed, Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Guelleh, AU chair Jean Ping as well as representatives from the UK and France.

President Kikwete recalled that during his tenure as AU chairman, he saw resources flowing to the UN missions in Darfur and the DRC but only a trickle to Amisom.

“Somalia needs action, not talk. Uganda and Burundi sent troops to Somalia but they are not getting international support. We don’t want to send troops into Somalia although we can protect the troops on the ground anytime they are endangered; intervention needs realistic support from the international community,” Meles Zenawi told the meeting.

Djibouti’s Ismail Guelleh said while the priority should be to rebuild the Somali army, this needed committed support and resources.

Mr Carson, who took notes throughout, did not immediately respond to the issues raised. Jean Ping proposed a follow-up meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September.

Outside the meeting, African leaders expressed a lack of faith in US President Barack Obama’s commitment to the Somali problem.

“The feeling was that because of his African lineage, President Obama was responding more cautiously to African problems than a white president would,” our source remarked.