Eritrea opposes deployment of IGAD force in Somalia
Aug 23, 2006 (NAIROBI) — Eritrean government on Wednesday opposed the deployment of a peacekeeping force in Somalia, which is scheduled for next month, warning that its rival Ethiopia wants to use the opportunity to invade Somalia.
Last week, defense chiefs from the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) said the first elements of the nearly 7,000-strong force are to assemble in northeast Kenya near the Somali border in late September, ready for deployment in the shattered Horn of Africa nation.
The Eritrean information ministry said the IGAD deployment would affect efforts by Somalis themselves to restore a functional authority in the lawless country.
Asmara says Islamic militias who are currently dominant in the country are attempting to restore calm in the capital Mogadishu and breathe life into stalled institutions of governance.
“Yet, instead of encouraging this internal initiative, various attempts are being made to pave the way for external military intervention so as to obstruct the aforementioned developments,” the ministry said in a statement published on its website (shabait).
“One of such attempts is the ridiculous proposition about the need of a peacekeeping mission in Somalia being advocated in the name of IGAD and the African Union, the latter being an organisation that had uttered not a word during the Somali people’s 16-year long plight,” the statement added.
IGAD, whose members are Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti and nominally Somalia, is credited with mediating two years of convoluted peace talks that resulted in the creation of the current Somali government in 2004.
Ethiopia has already deployed troops in Somalia to protect the weak government from a feared advance by the Islamic militia, who control a swathe of southern and central Somalia, including the Mogadishu.
“Thus, it should not be very surprising to see Ethiopia applying every political tool in its disposal to undermine positive developments in Somalia,” the statement warned.
“The only task this so-called peacekeeping mission will accomplish is to implement the (Ethiopia’s ruling party’s) own agenda and nothing more,” the statement said.
The Islamists have vowed to oppose the deployment of peacekeepers in Somalia, expected to start with two battalions from Uganda and Sudan, with a wing of radical clerics vowing to organise attacks against the peacekeepers.
Ties between Ethiopia and Eritrea have been badly strained for the past year with Asmara warning of a new conflict unless a 2002 border decision is put into place.
Analysts have warned that chronic instability in Somalia, which has been without a functioning central authority since the 1981 ouster of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, could become a proxy battleground for Ethiopia and Eritrea, which fought a bloody border war from 1998 to 2000.
Ethiopia has openly announced its resentment of the Islamists, and Eritrea has been accused of arming them.
Jostling for power in Somalia has scuppered more than 14 international mediation bids.
(ST/AFP)