EDITORIAL: Post-Amisom vacuum in Somalia should be AU’s priority
Troops from the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) patrol at southern town of Merka, 90kms north of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, on July 17, 2016. As Amisom packs its bags, focus should be on how to manage the post-Amisom vacuum, especially how to prevent Al-Shabaab from retaking the liberated territories. PHOTO | MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB | AFP
When Ethiopia first entered Mogadishu to rout the Islamic Courts Union, the forerunner of Al-Shabaab, in 2006, its motivation was to nip in the bud an extremist organisation with transnational ambitions. The ICU had also reawakened age-old territorial claims against Addis Ababa. Although both Ethiopia and Uganda hid behind the veil of the African Union to legitimise their actions, the latter’s entry months later was the culmination of a pact under which Kampala gave the Ethiopians covering fire as they withdrew from an untenable occupation of Mogadishu.
Ethiopia’s brief foray into Somalia, however, triggered a regional race that soon saw Eritrea and Kenya join the fray.
