ARTICLE: “Peace Force Is Attached on Arrival in Somalia: The latest violence in Mogadishu recalls the chaos that met earlier peacekeepers,” by Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times, 7 March 2007, p. A11.
I think we had something like 20k troops in Somalia way back when, and they weren’t enough. The African Union hopes to send 8k but has only half committed. Brave Uganda--400 strong--is sending in the first peacekeepers.
They got a nasty welcome and it will likely only go downhill from that.
Africa policing itself is a nice dream, but it’s a long ways off. I’m not saying these guys are up to the challenge on a individual basis (I was very impressed by the East African officers I recently engaged during my travels, as they all seem to understand Somalia quite well), it’s just that it’ll take some serious outside help and more bodies than the locals can generate (Kenya, for example, is the blue-chip military of the region and it’s total air-sea-land forces number around 30k).
In the beginning, capacity building won’t be enough. A critical mass will have to be built from a larger pool.
| Permalink |
