UGANDA/FILE: AMISOM resolves to hand over control of Kismayu to local forces in Somalia

Record ID: 349727

  • Title: UGANDA/FILE: AMISOM resolves to hand over control of Kismayu to local forces in Somalia
  • Date: 5th August 2013
  • Summary: KAMPALA, UGANDA (AUGUST 04, 2013) (REUTERS) DELEGATES ATTENDING AMISOM SUMMIT ETHIOPIA PRIME MINISTER HAILEMARIAM DESALEGN SOMALI PRESIDENT SHEIKH MAHMOUD UGANDAN PRESIDENT YOWERI MUSEVENI DELEGATES KENYAN PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA SIERRA LEONE AMBASSADOR TO THE AFRICAN UNION ANDREW BANGALI PRESIDENT MAHMOUD FEMALE DELEGATES
  • Embargoed: 20th August 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Uganda, Somalia
  • City:
  • Country: Somalia Uganda
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8UBLHMW0ZG0RBII0CKDAAAGD
  • Story Text: A summit of the Africa Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) has urged for the seaport town of Kismayu to be handed back to Somali forces.
    The communique was given on Sunday (August 4) at the end of a meeting held in Kampala, Uganda where leaders of Somalia and the five nations contributing troops to AMISOM discussed the way forward for the force that helped push al-Qaeda-allied al Shabaab from urban strongholds in central and southern Somalia.
    The horn of Africa country has enjoyed relative calm since the military offensives by AMISOM peacekeepers and Ethiopian troops but suicide attacks have reinforced concerns that the militants remain a potent force.
    In July, a confidential U.N. report accused Kenyan soldiers within AMISOM of facilitating illegal charcoal exports from Kismayu in the face of U.N sanctions.
    According to the report, the business generates millions of dollars a year for Islamic militants seeking to topple the government.
    Kenya denied the report. Somalia accused Kenya of supporting militias.
    "In accordance with the provision of the federal constitution of Somalia, the control of Kismayu seaport and airport should be handed over to the federal government of Somalia (applause). Number two, in line with UN Security Council resolutions the ban on the export of charcoal should be adhered to," said Uganda's foreign minister Sam Kutesa.
    Kismayu is a lucrative prize for clan leaders, bringing with it generous revenues from charcoal exports, port taxes and levies on arms and other illegal imports.
    The case highlights the difficulty of cutting off al Shabaab militants' funding and ensuring compliance with U.N. sanctions when there is little appetite for enforcing them on the ground.
    But will the move by AMISOM leaders curb the illegal export of charcoal? Hassan Shire, a Somali rights activist who fled his native country due to instability and has set up a rights group in Uganda, says yes.
    "Charcoal business must be put to an end and this resolution...as this communiqu�is calling for and managing the assets of Kismayu by the federal government will effectively put to end this charcoal business," said Shire.
    The summit also called for more troops to boost the overstretched force of 17,700 troops from Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Djibouti that first deployed in 2007.
    AMISOM soldiers' salaries are paid by the EU, while logistics are covered by the U.N. The United States, another donor, shares vital intelligence from drone flights.
    The overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 plunged Somalia into two decades of violence, first at the hands of clan warlords and then Islamist militants, while two semi-autonomous regions - Puntland and Somaliland - have emerged in northern Somalia.
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