French Commander Sees Military Progress in Crisis

Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)

22 July 2011

Kampala — The commander of French troops in Djibouti on Thursday said while the political solution to the Somali crisis is not clear, African Union troops and Somali government troops are making tremendous progress on the war front.

Maj. Gen. Thierry Caspar-Fille-Lambie told Xinhua in an interview here that unlike a year ago, the African Union (AU) troops and the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces are more efficient and have captured more ground from the Al Shabaab insurgents in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Caspar-Fille-Lambie is in Uganda to bid farewell to the Uganda military officials as his two-year term office ends in about two weeks.

Uganda contributes a bulk of the 12,000 African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) troops.

Burundi is another country that has its troops deployed in the volatile Horn of African country.

‘From a military point of view, AMISOM is more and more efficient and the Somalia defense forces are more and more involved on the ground,’ he said.

He said currently there is less desertion of the Somali troops to the Al Shabaab because of the now regular payment of the troops.

The French general attributes this success to the training of the Somali troops and the AU troops.

All the Ugandan peacekeeping troops have been trained by France and a team of military instructors from EU member countries is currently training Somali troops in Bihanga, western Uganda.

EU member countries are currently discussing in Brussels on whether to extend the training program of Somali recruits.

Over the last about one year, over 2,000 Somali troops have been trained in Uganda by the EU instructors.

Caspar-Fille-Lambie said that what is critical now is for the Somali troops to be equipped with skills of commanding of different operations.

He said a command structure within the Somali force is necessary to make their fight against the Al Shabaab more efficient.

He said more troops and equipment are needed in Mogadishu in order to register more military success.

He said Djibouti had promised troops which would help to train the Somali force at the staff level.

Military analysts estimate that 20,000 troops are needed on ground in order to stabilize the Horn of African country that has faced decades of war.

Many African troops have pledged to send troops to the country but they are yet to honor their pledges.

Caspar-Fille-Lambie said that African countries should own the military operation and the other non African countries are just there to help.

‘It is not our job to go to Somalia to solve the problem.

‘It is the problem of African countries, they have to solve the problem themselves,’ he said.

He said whereas there is progress on the military side, a political solution is also needed to solve the crisis.

Somali leaders on June 9 signed an agreement here dubbed ‘ Kampala Accord’ to end a political impasse between the TFG and Parliament.

The international community hailed the signing of the accord, which extended the tractional period for a year noting that the political impasse threatened the military successes so far gained.

Within the 12 months, the priority tasks the government and parliament will have to address include security, parliamentary reforms, constitution-making process, preparation for elections, and greater political outreach.

Caspar-Fille-Lambie warned that the Yemen crisis could have an impact of the Horn of Africa region.

He said pressure by the Yemen government on Al Qaeda has reduced since it is now focusing on the opposition.

He said this may give chance to the terror organization to be free to launch attacks.

There have been reports of Al Qaeda cells in Yemen arming and training the Al Shabaab.

Source: Xinhua

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