Somali BBC contributor shot dead

June 7, 2008 BBC News (Saturday 22:26 UK) report:

Gunmen in the southern Somali city of Kismayo have killed a local journalist.

Nasteh Dahir, who worked for both the BBC and Associated Press news agency, was shot in the chest and stomach outside his home.

The National Union of Somali Journalists said it was a "targeted assassination" and that the 26-year-old had received death threats.

Somalia, mired in chaos and violence since 1991, is among the world's most dangerous countries for journalists.

At least nine other journalists have been killed in Somalia since February 2007, according to the human-rights group Amnesty International.

Islamist insurgents are suspected in the attack on Mr Dahir, correspondents say.

At least 13 people, mainly civilians, die in an attack by insurgents on the African Union base in the Somali capital

May 27, 2008 BBC News World Africa report 'Deadly Somali raid on peace force':

Only Uganda and Burundi have sent peacekeepers to Somalia

At least 13 people, mainly civilians, have died in an attack by Islamist insurgents on an African Union (AU) base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

AU mission spokesman Baridgye Bahuko said two insurgents were among those killed during the fierce battle.

The UN and aid agencies say some 6,000 civilians have died during clashes in Mogadishu in the past year.

So far only 2,400 AU peacekeepers have been sent to Somalia, of a planned 8,000-strong force.

Ethiopian troops are also in Somalia supporting the transitional government.

Since the Ethiopians helped oust the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in December 2006, Islamist fighters have used guerrilla warfare to target government installations, Ethiopian and AU troops in the capital.

Al-Shabab, the militant wing of the UIC, has claimed responsibility for Monday's daring attack on the AU base.

Correspondents say at least 11 civilians died during the battle most of them were hit by stray bullets and mortars that landed on their homes.

A alliance of opposition groups based in Eritrea - which includes the Islamists - has refused to have face-to-face talks with the government until there is an agreed timetable for Ethiopian troops to leave Somalia.

The country has been devastated by conflict since 1991 when the former President Mohammed Siad Barre was ousted.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7421357.stm

Ethiopia in Somalia: One year on (Martin Plaut, BBC)

Copy of BBC News report Friday, 28 December 2007, 00:25 GMT

By Martin Plaut
BBC Africa analyst

The Ethiopian decision to invade Somalia in December 2006 altered the balance of power in the Horn of Africa.

The Ethiopian army is now fighting on several fronts

On 28 December 2006, they helped government forces capture Islamists from the capital, Mogadishu, which they had controlled for six months.

Ethiopian forces, which had been facing Eritrea along their 1,000km border, but were otherwise confronting few security threats, are now engaged on three fronts.

The forces in Somalia are now bogged down and cannot withdraw, as Prime Minister Meles Zenawi recently acknowledged.

In addition to the conflict in Somalia they now also confront a growing rebellion in the Somali region of Ethiopia from the Ogaden National Liberation Front.

Knox Chitiyo, head of the Africa programme at the Royal United Services Institute in London, believes the Ethiopian military position is increasingly difficult.

"The government now has daggers pointing at it from all directions," he says.

"It is facing a multi-front war with no prospect of a military victory."

The invasion has:

- Left Ethiopia bogged down in Somalia
- Forced around 600,000 Somalis to flee their homes, in what the UN has described as one of the worst humanitarian situations in Africa
- Brought the United States into the conflict, allied to Ethiopia
- Left Eritrea even more isolated from the international community and threatened with being declared a terrorist state by Washington.

The US says it opposed the Ethiopian invasion, although it certainly supplied assistance to the Ethiopian military once the invasion had happened, and used its AC-130 gunships to try to kill senior Islamists on at least one occasion in January 2007.

Many Somalis are opposed to the Ethiopian presence

The US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said: "We urged the Ethiopian military not to go into Somalia."

This is acknowledged by Ethiopian officials, who say the then head of US Central Command, General John Abizaid told them the invasion would be a mistake, and warned that Somalia would become "Ethiopia's Iraq."

Others analysts are not so apocalyptic. Ethiopia argued it had no alternative but to confront the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) after it took power in Mogadishu in mid-2006, because of the Islamists' alleged links with al-Qaeda.

The declaration of a jihad against Addis Ababa by UIC leader Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys was seen as the last straw.

Human cost

But even if the UIC was routed, it has now re-formed and has banded together with other forces in the Eritrean-based Alliance for the Liberation of Somalia.

Sally Healy of the Royal Institute of International Affairs argues that even if Ethiopia has made some security gains, the suffering of ordinary Somalis has been disproportionately high.

"The cost for the people of Mogadishu has been unacceptable," she says.

This reflects the view of the United Nations, which now considers Somalia the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa.

The conflict is taking a heavy toll on Somali civilians

Peter Smerdon of the World Food Programme says it will have to try to feed at least 1.2 million Somalis during 2008.

"More than 600,000 people were forced from their homes in Mogadishu in 2007 by fighting and the worst cereals harvest in 13 years in Middle and Lower Shabelle, traditionally the most agriculturally productive regions of the whole country," Mr Smerdon says.

He warns the numbers needing food aid could well rise if there is continued insecurity and any kind of repeat of the floods and bad harvests seen in recent years.

New initiative

So how might the Somali crisis be resolved?

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced this year

Ethiopia has said it would consider withdrawing its troops if an international peacekeeping force were put in place, but UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said the situation in the country makes such a deployment "neither realistic nor viable".

The UN believes a new initiative is required, bringing together Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and the opposition.

This proposal was put forward by the UN's senior Somali official, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, when he addressed the UN Security Council earlier this month.

"These discussions should preferably be held in a location close to Somalia or in one where most observers following the situation in the country are based," he said.

"I am preparing the agenda, identifying a possible list of participants, and the timing for this process."

Ms Healy says this is really the only way forward.

Until an exit strategy can be achieved for Ethiopia, its troops will remain in occupation of the country - providing a cause around which the Islamists can rally.

"The Somali people must create a situation that would allow the Ethiopians to leave," she says.

But 16 years after the country last had a functioning national government, there seems little prospect of President Abdullahi Yusuf asserting control of the whole country in 2008.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7155868.stm

Rebel attack won’t discourage Chinese investment in Ethiopia-PM

May 16, 2007 Reuters report in full (via Sudan Tribune Thursday 17 May, 2007, entitled 'Rebel attack won’t discourage Chinese investment in Ethiopia-PM'):

May 16, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) - A rebel attack on an oil facility in Ethiopia that killed nine Chinese workers and 64 locals has not dented Beijing’s investment in the Horn of Africa nation, the Ethiopian leader said on Wednesday.

"The Chinese have made it abundantly clear that they are not going to be scared away," Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told Reuters. "On the contrary, they are increasing their investment in our country."

Chinese personnel returned quickly to the exploration project they run in the remote south-eastern Ogaden area after the attack, he said. "We have immediately after the incident taken effective measures to ensure it does not happen again."

The pre-dawn raid in late April was one of the Ogaden National Liberation Front’s (ONLF) highest profile operations.

The attack highlighted the perils of Beijing’s growing investment push in Africa, which it regards as a crucial source of raw materials for its booming economy. In Ethiopia, the Chinese are mainly involved in the construction business.

Meles’s government wants more foreign investment and he said the attack should not have a lasting impact.

"I would understand that some foreign investors might be a bit worried about going to the place where the massacre took place," he said.

"But I do not think it will have any long-term impact. There have been no such incidents in the main economic centres of the country. And here in Addis, I would argue that it is probably one of the safest cities on earth."

WORLD TRADE CLUB

Meles confirmed Ethiopia was seeking membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and was "reasonably optimistic" of acceptance.

"I hope it will be a speedy process. It can take many years, but I very much hope that this will not be one of those very protracted processes. They tell me that two to three years would be a reasonably expeditious process," he said.

Economists say Ethiopia may come under pressure first to open its financial sector to foreign investors and relinquish state control of telecommunications.

Meles said: "I do not think they should be obstacles. As you know, we are a least developed country, and least developed countries benefit from what is called a special and differential treatment (in the WTO)."

Africa’s top coffee producer and sub-Saharan Africa’s second most populous nation, Ethiopia was on track for its projected economic growth rate of near 10 percent this 2006-07 year, compared with 9 percent last year, Meles said.

"We expect to maintain the momentum next year too. Our hope and expectation is that it will be a double-digit growth rate. It is still agriculture leading the growth. But industry and services are also picking up."

Inflation — a big problem for Ethiopia’s 79 million people — was "unfortunately still too high for our taste", said Meles, with an expected 10-12 percent rate this year, after 12 percent in 2005-06.

"But I hope it will be lower next year," he said.

The most vulnerable group, the urban poor, were being helped by measures including food subsidies, said Meles, who receives generally high marks from analysts and diplomats for his pro-poor policies.

(Reuters)

AU peacekeepers killed in Somalia while on patrol in the north of Mogadishu

May 16, 2007 BBC News report 'AU peacekeepers killed in Somalia' published online Wednesday, 16 May 2007:

Four African Union soldiers have been killed after a roadside bomb struck their convoy while on patrol at the north of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.

AU spokesman Paddy Ankunda said five other soldiers were injured in the explosion targeted at the peacekeepers.

The attack is the deadliest on the peacekeepers since 1,600 Uganda soldiers deployed to the city in March.

A proposed force of 8,000 AU soldiers is due to take over security duties from the Ethiopian army.

Ethiopia's troops have been in Mogadishu since December at the invitation of Somalia's transitional government fighting Islamist insurgents and clan militiamen.

The attack comes only a day after Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf held talks with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni in Kampala over the mission.

"We lost four and five were wounded. It was a roadside bomb and its intention was to hit the peacekeepers," Mr Ankunda told Reuters news agency.

He told the BBC that the wounded would be evacuated to Uganda for treatment.

The interim President's spokesman Hussein Mohamed Mohamud blamed the attack on Al-Qaeda elements still residing in Mogadishu and said they were hunting for them.

Cinema attack

Earlier, four people were killed in the Gedo region, south of the capital, Mogadishu, when an unknown man threw an explosive at a cinema hall.

Baardheere Police chief Mohammed Yare said 20 others were seriously injured during the attack which took place while they were watching an Indian film.

"We do not know who is responsible for the attack but are investigating," Mr Yare told the Associated Press news agency.

On Monday, a similar blast occurred at a different cinema hall but there were no casualties during the incident.

Health officials in Gedo are battling to treat the victims of the attack and lack resources.

"Most have serious wounds and we are trying to help though we do not have enough medicine," Dr Bashir Ali of Shifo Hospital where most of the casualties were taken said. During the six-month rule in Mogadishu and southern parts of Somalia, the Union of Islamic Courts banned cinemas, television viewing and music.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Warning

On Tuesday, the US and the AU warned Ethiopia not to withdraw its troops from Somalia before peacekeepers are deployed to replace them.

AU commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare said it would be a "catastrophe" if Ethiopia pulled out too soon.

US Africa envoy Jendayi Frazer said it would probably be several months before the full peacekeeping force arrived.

Ethiopia's prime minister says he wants to withdraw all his troops, after they helped oust the Union of Islamic Courts.

Somalia has been without an effective national government for 16 years, controlled by rival militias and awash with guns.

Releases

Two foreign aid workers kidnapped last week in northern Somalia have been released.

Reports from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland say the pair - one Kenyan and one British - were being flown to Nairobi after their kidnappers handed them over to local elders.

Both men are employees of the London-based charity, Care International.

Its director in Somalia, David Gilmour, said they were relieved that the issue was resolved with nobody being harmed.

One of the kidnappers told Reuters news agency by satellite telephone that they had released the aid workers following successful negotiations with the Puntland authorities; but he did not elaborate.

Ethiopian rebels kill 70 at Chinese-run oil field

By Jeffrey Gettleman
International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Ethiopian rebels kill 70 at Chinese-run oil field

NAIROBI, Kenya: Separatist rebels stormed a Chinese-run oil field in eastern Ethiopia on Tuesday, killing more than 70 people, including nine Chinese workers, in one of Ethiopia's worst rebel attacks in years.

Dozens of gunmen crept up to the oil field at dawn and unleashed a barrage of machine-gun fire at Ethiopian soldiers posted outside, Chinese and Ethiopian officials said. After a fierce hourlong battle, the rebels rushed away, taking at least six Chinese hostages with them.

Ethiopia, a close ally of the United States, has been racked by separatist movements for years. But the severity of this attack seemed to unnerve Ethiopian officials, who usually minimize any threats to their control.

"It was a massacre," Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said in a televised address on Tuesday night. "It was cold-blooded murder."

The Ogaden National Liberation Front, a militant group fighting for control of eastern Ethiopia, immediately claimed responsibility, circulating an e-mail message that said, "We will not allow the mineral resources of our people to be exploited by this regime or any firm that it enters into an illegal contract."

The front said that its primary target was the Ethiopian soldiers guarding the oil field and that the Chinese workers had been killed by explosions during the fighting.

Given China's drive to extract oil wherever it can be found, Chinese workers are often dispatched to conflict zones, and several have been kidnapped in the volatile Niger Delta region of Nigeria. In other parts of Africa, like Zambia, China's investments have brought resentment from local politicians and residents.

As for the workers kidnapped on Tuesday, the rebel group's statement said: "ONLF forces rounding up Ethiopian military prisoners following the battle came across six Chinese workers. They have been removed from the battlefield for their own safety and are being treated well." But the group did not say anything about releasing them.

Ethiopian officials, who confirmed that 65 government soldiers had been killed, said they were rushing reinforcements to the area and vowed to crush the rebels. But the country's military is stretched thin.

Thousands of Ethiopian troops are bogged down in Somalia, where they face increasingly intense resistance. On Tuesday, a suicide bomber attacking Ethiopian troops killed seven civilians in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, the second time in a week that suicide attacks were used. More than 1,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the past month in heavy shelling between Somali insurgents and Ethiopian-led troops.

Ethiopia, with covert American help, intervened in Somalia in December to prop up Somalia's weak transitional government and defeat Islamist forces that had controlled much of Somalia and were widely suspected of sheltering anti-Ethiopian rebel groups like the Ogaden National Liberation Front.

Ethiopian troops in Somalia recently rounded up dozens of suspected rebels, and human rights observers say the Ethiopians have also imprisoned — and tortured — innocent civilians.

Such tactics, analysts say, may now be coming back to haunt the Ethiopians.

"This is the rebels' response," said Ted Dagne, a specialist in African affairs for the Congressional Research Service. "They are fighting a classic guerrilla war against the government, and those widespread detentions became another one of their grievances."

The Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia is a hot and inhospitable place, home to Somali-speaking nomads who have always identified more with neighboring Somalia than with Ethiopia. Part of the reason is religion. Ethiopia's leaders have traditionally been Christian, while Ogadenis are almost all Muslims.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front, formed 23 years ago, was briefly aligned with the current Ethiopian government but broke away in the mid-1990s after it was clear that the Ogaden region would not be given autonomy.

Western military analysts say the front has a few thousand lightly armed fighters, who get their weapons and training from Eritrea, Ethiopia's neighbor and bitter enemy. In the galaxy of rebel groups roaming nearly every corner of Ethiopia, these fighters have been considered a midlevel threat to the government.

Oil, though, seems to be its new focus. In August, the Web-savvy front issued an electronic threat against a Malaysian oil company that was contemplating drilling in Ethiopia.

The oil field that the rebels raided Tuesday was run by a division of China's government-owned energy giant, the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation. According to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, the Ethiopian rebels briefly seized control of the oil field before kidnapping seven Chinese workers, who were among the 37 Chinese and 120 Ethiopians employed there.

In Jijiga, a nearby city, residents said Ethiopian soldiers were mustering for a huge counterstrike.

"There are federal soldiers and city police everywhere on the streets," said a businessman named Biruk. "People are scared."

Last month, the Ogaden National Liberation Front accused the Ethiopian government of burning an Ogadeni village to the ground. It said that government soldiers had gone after civilians, not fighters, and that "the ONLF will respond swiftly and decisively to this barbaric act."

Nato show of strength off Somalia

Six ships from Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany and the US are on the first circumnavigation of Africa by a Nato naval group.



Sep 21, 2007 report by Nick Childs, BBC world affairs correspondent. Excerpt:

Just over a month ago the Nato force began its circumnavigation of Africa - a first for the alliance.

The ships sailed down the west coast, and conducted operations in the Gulf of Guinea - another area of concern.

They also took part in what Nato called "highly successful" exercises with the South African Navy - an emerging regional maritime power.

The Nato deployment is further evidence that the alliance is seeking to adopt a broader security mission beyond its old Cold War role, and that the major Western powers are taking a new and increasing interest in the security issues in and around Africa.

Humanitarian situation in Ethiopia’s Ogaden region worsens - UN

AP report in full - via Sudan Tribune 20 Sep 2007:

September 19, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia) — The United Nations said Wednesday that the situation in Ethiopia’s Ogaden region has "deteriorated rapidly," and called for an independent investigation into the humanitarian issues there.

The U.N. sent a fact-finding mission to the Ogaden in the country’s volatile east from Aug. 30 to Sept. 6.

"The mission observed the recent fighting has led to a worsening humanitarian situation, in which the price of food has nearly doubled," the U.N. said in a statement released late Wednesday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The mission also called for a substantial increase in emergency food aid to the impoverished region where rebels have been fighting for increased autonomy for more than a decade.

The U.N. mission was sent after months of fighting that followed a crackdown ordered by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on the Ogaden National Liberation Front. The government says the rebels, who killed 74 members of a Chinese-run oil exploration team, are terrorists, funded by its archenemy Eritrea.

The rebels have accused the Ethiopian government of genocide - a charge the government denies. In a statement on Sept. 13, the front said the government was punishing civilians for the rebel activities and that the fact-finding mission had not visited areas where war crimes were being committed.

"The Ethiopian regime’s policy in Ogaden continues to be a campaign of state-sponsored terror that largely avoids engagements with ONLF forces and instead focuses on collectively punishing our civilian population," the statement said. "Victims of the regime’s war crimes include victims of rape, torture, gunshot wounds and those fleeing burnt villages," it said.

The front called on the international community to stop "yet another preventable African genocide," and urged the U.N. to investigate further in the region, saying the recent trip had been too tightly controlled by the government.

Bereket Simon, the special adviser to the prime minister, dismissed the rebels’ claims after the statement was issued last week.

"They said it is good that the U.N. has sent the fact-finding mission. And now when the facts from the ground are found to be not supporting their claims, they are fighting the fact-finding mission," he said.

The group is fighting for greater political rights for the region, which is ethnically Somali.

G9 and the People's Republic of Bono

G8 should be renamed G9, writes Brendan O'Neill at spiked-online.com June 13, 2007. Heh, power to the people, bring it on.

Here is a copy in full incase weblink to article "Welcome to the People's Republic of Bono" becomes broken:

The G8 should change its name to the G9. Because if this year’s summit in Heiligendamm, Germany was anything to go by, there’s a new member of the pack.

Alongside the eight most industrialised nations on Earth who make up the ‘Group of Eight’ – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US, who between them represent around 65 per cent of the world economy – there was a ninth stately presence at Heiligendamm. It didn’t actually sit at the summit itself, but it did have ‘numerous sources at the negotiating table’, to such an extent that it felt like ‘we have the place bugged, because everybody tells us [what is going on]’, said the ninth power (1). It also held meetings with most of the world leaders, and severely chastised those who refused to meet it. When Canadian PM Stephen Harper said he was too busy to meet with the ninth power he was accused of ‘blocking progress’. ‘Canada has become a laggard’, the ninth power declared (2). It also passed judgement on the proceedings: its ‘satisfaction’, ‘relief’, ‘fury’ or ‘disappointment’ with the G8’s decisions hogged the newspaper headlines during the three-day summit (3). It effectively played the role of a second chamber to the G8, keeping a Lord-like watchful eye on what the Group of Eight Commoners came up with.

Who or what was this stately presence at Heiligendamm? It wasn’t a state at all, or even a pseudo-state like the Vatican. It was one Paul Hewson, better known as Bono, the sanctimonious wraparounds-wearing lead singer of a wrinkling Irish rock band that hasn’t made a decent album since 1987 (though I suppose 2000’s All That You Can Leave Behind was okay). He has gone from being the singer of really serious songs for Africa, who gyrated and screamed on the world stages provided by Live Aid in 1985 and Live 8 in 2005 to ‘raise awareness’ about African poverty, to the semi-official representative of the African poor, the widely recognised ‘conscience of Africa’ who is invited to put pressure on world leaders and hold them to account. As one report says, ‘it can only be a matter of time before [Bono] is granted official status along the lines of the Outreach Five group of developing countries that take part in some G8 meetings’ (4). The rockers are no longer warbling at the gates of the G8 – they’re inside them.

Bono had an extraordinary amount of influence at the summit. And it wasn’t simply a case of greying world leaders wanting to be photographed with ‘rock royalty’ in an attempt to make themselves look with it and cool, as some reports claimed (not realising that Bono is as uncool as it gets) (5). In fact, Bono held serious meetings with US president George W Bush, German chancellor Angela Merkel, new French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian PM Romano Prodi. According to reports, these were ‘tough meetings’ at which Bono and his people ‘rowed’ with world leaders over strategy, aid and their commitment to Africa (6). Apparently the meeting with Merkel was particularly tense. One report says Bono, joined by his fellow singer-turned-spokesman-for-Africa Bob Geldof, was stern with Chancellor Merkel and got into a ‘row with the chancellor’s office about their aid numbers’. Merkel, chair of this year’s G8, and Bono, the ninth power, apparently reached an agreement that ‘aid needed to be increased by 2010’ but they disagreed over the ‘plan for making it happen’ (7).

Reportedly, Bono and ‘his people’ even managed to swing certain states to their way of thinking. At a ‘very, very tense meeting’ with Romano Prodi and the Italian delegation, Bono accused the Italians of ‘over-promising and under-delivering’ on aid for Africa. The singer became so frustrated by Italy that he and his team got up to leave, pompously declaring ‘We’ve got to go and meet the president of France’. The Italians pleaded with Bono to wait, disappeared around the corner, and then came back with a new proposal on aid contributions. Bono was pleased, describing it as a proposal ‘which may turn Italy around’ (8). At another meeting, Bono and Bush discussed increasing American aid for building more schools and defeating AIDS in Africa. They also discussed ‘the strategic importance of [Africa] in the next US presidential race’, with Bono reportedly impressing on Bush the idea that helping Africa can be a vote-winner at home (9). Not content with self-electing himself as a spokesman for Africa, Bono now wants to influence the outcome of American elections, too.

Those who refused to meet with Bono were held up to public ridicule. Canadian PM Stephen Harper, invited to discuss Canada’s aid contributions with Bono, declared: ‘Meeting celebrities isn’t my kind of schtick. That was the schtick of the previous guy.’ (The previous guy being former Canadian PM Paul Martin, who met with Bono several times and struck up something of a friendship with the rocker.) (10) Bono was severely chastened: How dare a leader of a powerful nation refuse to meet me?! His revenge was swift and unforgiving. He declared that his ‘numerous sources’ inside the summit – apparently so many delegation members were passing insider information to Bono that ‘it’s as if we have the place bugged’, Bono said – had told him that Harper was blocking progress on aid for Africa. ‘We know who’s causing the trouble and who isn’t. And we know that Canada blocked progress. We know that Harper blocked it.’ (11)

Bono went so far as to accuse Harper of being ‘out of sync’ with the Canadian people, who ‘enjoy a prosperous economy and surplus public finances and would like to help others’ (12). Bono’s buddy Bob Geldof snottily said: ‘A man called Stephen Harper came to Heiligendamm. But Canada stayed at home.’ (13) Here we have two unelected rock stars who have taken it upon themselves to speak for Africa (Geldof has referred to himself as ‘Mr Africa’) chastising a PM who was elected by millions of Canadians for letting Canada down. Apparently Bono and Bob also know what is best for Canada as well as for Africa. Feeling publicly humiliated by Bono, Harper was forced to deny at a press conference that he had blocked progress, arguing: ‘It’s completely false and the people saying this have no proof to their allegations.’ He also relented somewhat on his anti-celebrity line and said he would be happy to arrange a meeting with Bono at a future date (14). This is what you get if you cross the ninth power that is Bono at a G8 summit: public humiliation, and accusations that you are failing in both your democratic and humanitarian duties.

In some ways, Bono held even more sway over the proceedings at Heiligendamm – or certainly over the public perception of them – than the lowly elected leaders inside the summit. Merkel may have chaired the meetings, and Bush, being the most powerful, may have put pressure on Blair, Sarkozy, Prodi, Harper, Vladimir Putin (of Russia) and Shinzo Abe (of Japan) to go along with his general outlook on aid and climate change. But it was the ninth power – sitting just outside the summit, and thus above it – that passed judgement on the summit’s proposals, ticking off those it agreed with and frowning on those it disliked. Bono’s view of G8 dominated much of the news coverage, with serious media outlets running headlines such as: ‘U2’s Bono: G8 Not Keeping Money Promises To Africa’; ‘G8 Africa Pledge Is A Smokescreen, Says Bono’; ‘G8 Reaffirms Aid To Africa; Bono, Geldof Say It’s Old Money’ (14). Not only did Bono have ‘numerous sources’ reportedly agitating at the summit table; not only did he apparently influence the position of various states during ‘very, very tense meetings’; he also set himself up as the public moral arbiter of the G8’s achievements and failings.

How has this happened? How has the pompous singer of a pompous rock act – who, let’s not forget, were considered painfully square when they first emerged in the post-punkish era of 1979, and who were looked upon as pious popsters in the early Eighties because they kept banging on about God – come to exert so much influence on the world stage? People thought it was bizarre when Queen Elizabeth II gave OBEs (Orders of the British Empire) to John, Paul, George and Ringo in 1964 for contributions to the ‘British Empire’ that mainly consisted of writing nice jangly pop songs and making American girls faint. Yet now we have a pop star who is giving the Queen a run for her money in the international influence stakes, and who effectively oversees his own Empire: poor Africa. Bono has declared: ‘I represent a lot of people [in Africa] who have no voice at all…. They haven’t asked me to represent them. It’s cheeky but I hope they’re glad I do.’ (15) Once upon a time you might have written off such a statement as the deluded rant of a deluded multi-millionaire, who is only the tousle-haired, leather trouser-wearing equivalent of those rich ladies-who-lunch, who have always filled the time in between manicures and wine-fuelled extramarital affairs by carrying out charitable deeds. Yet judging by his role at the G8 summit, Bono really has been elevated to the semi-official position of Cheeky Representative of A Lot of People in Africa.

Bono has become a one-man state; more than that, he’s a one-man cross-border supranational institution. He presumes to speak for millions, not on the basis of a democratic mandate but on the basis that he – mystically, magically, and because Africans are apparently too poor and destitute to speak for themselves – really, really knows what Africans want. Thus we have the utterly bizarre spectacle of a rock star putting pressure on leaders who were elected by millions of people to do what ‘I WANT’ in Africa. British newspaper columnist Rod Liddle refers to him as ‘the People’s Republic of Bono’, and wonders how long it will be before he is given ‘a seat on the United Nations security council’ or makes an announcement that ‘he is developing nuclear weapons’ (16). Well, at least then he could back up his demands of the G8 with some real firepower. Bono really does see himself as a state-like phenomenon: in the current issue of Vanity Fair he boasts that his (Project) Red charity initiative donated more to the Global Fund for Africa last year than ‘Australia, Switzerland and China...combined’, the implication being that he is at least the equal of, if not even more powerful than, these states in international debates about aid (17). They used to call it colonialism when a white man from over here decided that he represented the interests of the black hordes over there. Now they call it ‘passionate and serious crusading’ (18).

It is easy of course, and jolly good fun, to mock Bono, who is a monumentally self-important ass (‘There is no respite from this man’s megalomania’, says Liddle). And indeed, alongside his rise to a position of considerable international clout there has been a corresponding rise in Bono-bashing. You can now buy t-shirts that say ‘Make Bono History’ on them. There is a young indie rock band called Bono Must Die (apparently Bob Geldof was furious when he discovered that his daughter Peaches is a fan of this blasphemous outfit). The press frequently accuses Bono of being a hypocrite: one minute he is saying ‘let’s save Africa’, the next he is forking out thousands of pounds on taking a former stylist to court because she allegedly stole a pair of his trousers (19). Sometimes it’s just too easy to bop Bono. For example, he guest edits the current Vanity Fair, which is a special on African poverty, and you won’t believe this: it comes with a pull-out supplement on uber-expensive jewellery titled: ‘Fire and Ice: 72 pages of ravishing rocks, ginormous gems and fancy fripperies’ (20). The jokes write themselves.

Yet just slating Bono misses out what has changed in world politics to allow a silly singer to become a spokesperson for Africa and a major player at the G8. First, Bono’s rise shows the role that Africa plays for many people today. For politicians and celebrities alike, Africa has become a stage for moralistic posturing. Campaigning on African poverty is something that ‘gives me a sense of purpose, something to work for’, as a contributor to Bono’s Vanity Fair puts it (21). Or as Paul Theroux bitingly argues: ‘Because Africa seems unfinished and so different from the rest of the world, a landscape on which a person can sketch a new personality, it attracts mythomaniacs, people who wish to convince the world of their worth.’ (22) Indeed, we could just as easily ask what earthly right the G8 itself has to discuss and determine what should happen in Africa’s poorest countries. Like Bono, no G8 leader has ever been elected by the nations of Africa. For these leaders, the G8 summits have become a kind of moral spectacle, intended to show that they care and they have a humane and giving side; our leaders find it easier to show ‘moral courage’ on Africa than on divisive issues at home. Never mind the fact that their aid proposals for Africa are spectacularly stingy and often place Africa in a new economic straitjacket – just the act of talking about Africa on an annual basis is intended to send a powerful message about the G8 nations’ moral integrity. Bono is only the most successful of many ‘Mr Africas’ around today.

Second, Bono’s rise has been facilitated by the unholy marriage of politics and celebrity. No political campaign seems complete these days without a celebrity fronting it or even forcing it through. As Mick Hume has argued on spiked: ‘As serious public and political life has withered, so celebrity culture has expanded to fill the gap, often with the encouragement of political leaders desperate for some celebrity cover.’ (See When celebrities rule the Earth, by Mick Hume.) Bono did not smash down the gates of the G8 to gain entry. Rather, he was effectively invited in by G8 leaders who hoped that the celebrity crusader would add a touch of grit and glamour to their shallow and self-serving debates on Africa. Even Bono’s haranguing of the world leaders had its benefits, since it allowed the G8 to present itself as being nail-bitingly responsive to African demands (as represented by Bono of course) and it may have won them a new, potentially younger audience in the shape of celebrity-watchers and the MTV crowd. When even discussions of ‘ending poverty’ require a celebrity to front them, you know that celebrities truly do rule the Earth.

Bono is a celebrity colonialist. His patronising campaign to single-handedly ‘save Africa’ is actually damaging the continent. It is painting Africa as a pathetic place whose wide-eyed, infantile populations need a loudmouth rock star to fight their corner. His disregard for anything resembling an electoral process (‘I represent a lot of people in Africa’) lends weight to the prejudice that African leaders are peculiarly corrupt, and thus it is best to leapfrog straight over them – as does his demand for ‘anti-corruption measures’ to be attached to all forms of aid to Africa (23). Yet having a pop at his pomposity is not enough. Alongside making fun of Bono, let us challenge today’s prostitution of African problems for the purposes of Western self-aggrandisement, which has led to his being crowned King of the Africans. Bono Must Die? Well, that would be a good start - but only a start.

Brendan O’Neill is editor of spiked. Visit his personal website here.

Previously on spiked

Mick Hume explained what happens when celebrities rule the Earth and how Gordon Brown recently tried to distance himself from celebrity culture. Brendan O’Neill attacked the rise of ‘celebrity colonialism’ and asked if we should make ‘Make Poverty History’ history. The new Amex card, launched by Bono, made Daniel Ben-Ami see red. Or read more at: spiked issue Celebrity.

(1) Bono, Geldof slam Canada as a ‘laggard’ on African aid, CBC News, 9 June 2007

(2) Bono, Geldof slam Canada as a ‘laggard’ on African aid, CBC News, 9 June 2007

(3) See, for example, G8 reaffirms aid to Africa; Bono, Geldof charge it’s old money, Waterloo Record, Canada, 8 June 2007

(4) Travels through Europe with President Bush, Financial Times, 13 June 2007

(5) Travels through Europe with President Bush, Financial Times, 13 June 2007

(6) Bono, Geldof rock G8 for world’s poor, The Australian, 8 June 2007

(7) Merkel Quarrels With Bono, Geldof Over African Aid, Bloomberg, 7 June 2007

(8) U2 Meets With Bush And Italian PM At G8 Summit, Net Music Countdown, 11 June 2007

(9) Bono, Bob find signs of ‘donor fatigue’, U2 France, 8 June

(10) Harper schtick-in-the-mud on Bono meet, Calgary Sun, 8 June 2007

(11) Harper schtick-in-the-mud on Bono meet, Calgary Sun, 8 June 2007

(12) Harper schtick-in-the-mud on Bono meet, Calgary Sun, 8 June 2007

(13) Harper schtick-in-the-mud on Bono meet, Calgary Sun, 8 June 2007

(14) Harper schtick-in-the-mud on Bono meet, Calgary Sun, 8 June 2007

(15) See What do pop stars know about the world?, Brendan O’Neill, BBC News, 28 June 2005

(16) Rod Liddle, The Sunday Times, 10 June 2007

(17) Vanity Fair, July 2007

(18) Vanity Fair, July 2007

(19) U2 sue over Bono’s trousers, Guardian, 29 June 2005

(20) Vanity Fair, July 2007

(21) Vanity Fair, July 2007

(22) ‘The Rock Star’s Burden’, Paul Theroux, December 2005

(23) See Bono’s One Campaign

Heavy gunfire erupts in Mogadishu as AU peacekeepers land

Reuters report by Sahal Abdulle Mar 6 2007 6:07 PM GMT:

Insurgents unleashed two attacks against the Somali government and its foreign allies in Mogadishu on Tuesday, just hours after Ugandan peacekeepers assigned to tame the anarchic city landed.

The concerted assaults, some of the heaviest in weeks, appeared timed to coincide with the arrival of some 350 Ugandans in the vanguard of an African Union mission to help restore law to a country mired in chaos since central rule crumbled in 1991.

More than a dozen mortar strikes hit the airport, where the Ugandans were camped after landing earlier. A Ugandan army spokesman said none of the soldiers was wounded.

"The military side of the airport has been hit. We cannot cross from this side to the other side," said a witness.

The Ugandans were the first batch of peacekeepers to arrive in Mogadishu since a U.S. and U.N. operation ended in failure in 1995, after relentless street battles with local militiamen.

The proposed 8,000-strong AU force is designed to help Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf's government extend its shaky authority over the Horn of Africa country.

Yusuf, backed by Ethiopian armour and air power in a lightning war over Christmas and New Year, routed rival Islamists who held most of southern Somalia for six months.

They fled into hiding vowing to wage holy war against foreign troops and guerrilla attacks have gradually built up.

Shortly after the airport attack, scores of masked fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns at government and Ethiopian troops at a base in Mogadishu's industrial area.

At least two civilians were killed in the attack, said a local reporter trapped by the gunfire at a nearby hospital.

"SUICIDE MISSION"

Most of the Ugandans were flown in by the Algerian air force in C-130 cargo planes.

Last week, 35 Ugandan officers landed in Baidoa, the interim government's temporary capital in south-central Somalia. More are expected to arrive in the coming days to bring the Ugandan contingent to about 1,600.

The Ugandans are assigned to patrol Mogadishu, one of the world's most dangerous and gun-infested cities.

"It's a suicide mission. No one in their right mind would send 1,600 troops to Somalia now. They're sending in boys with no experience of this kind of mission," said a Western diplomat in the Ugandan capital Kampala, who declined to be named.

The insurgents are suspected of being a mix of defeated Islamists and clan militiamen resisting central rule that would end their private fiefdoms.

Two unmarked Russian-made Antonov cargo aircraft flew in white military vehicles for the Ugandans with AU markings, including armoured personnel carriers.

The AU force is needed to replace Ethiopian troops, which Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says he is eager to pull out after defeating the Islamists.

But as with its previous peacekeeping operation, in Sudan's Darfur region, the AU faces a shortage of money and equipment.

"I hope our partners will help us overcome the funding and logistical problems facing the AU," said Said Djinnit, the group's commissioner for peace and security.

Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi and Burundi are also expected to send troops to join the AU force, but pledges so far make up only about half of the required number of soldiers.

None of the previous 13 attempts at a central government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991 have succeeded in taming the coastal city.

"Our mission is not to fight, but if the lives of troops are endangered, they have the right to fight back," Djinnit said.

Somalia's Islamist milias may be plotting comeback

March 5, 2007 copy of report (via POTP - with thanks)

March 5, 2007
Somalia's Islamist militias may be plotting comeback
By McClatchy's Shashank Bengali...
(See also his report from last Thursday.)

Barely two months after they were toppled by a U.S.-backed military operation, militant Islamist leaders and hundreds of fighters have returned to the country's capital and are quietly preparing to make a comeback, according to militia members and Somali community leaders.

An Ethiopian invasion in late December drove the Council of Islamic Courts out of Mogadishu, but according to U.S. diplomats, Ethiopian forces captured few fighters and killed none of the top Islamist leaders. Since then, many of the senior leaders, who the Bush administration says have ties to al-Qaida, have returned to the city, militia members said.

Several hundred fighters are now living in Mogadishu, where they dress in plain clothes and work day jobs as cafeteria workers and traders, but meet regularly with superior officers and tribal elders, according to fighters from three neighborhoods in south Mogadishu. The fighters and their tribal supporters said [that] they maintain an underground arsenal of automatic rifles, grenades and other weapons.

In Washington, a U.S. official said [that] McClatchy's reporting from Mogadishu is "basically on the mark," and that although it's "hard to affix a number" to the returning fighters, the Islamists' return is "cause for concern."

"There is reason to believe that some have returned to Mogadishu and they may be trying to reconstitute themselves," said the official, who couldn't be identified because the reporting from Somalia is classified.

Civic leaders confirmed the accounts about the Islamist fighters. "They are reorganizing themselves, and no one can stop that," said Abdullahi Shirwa, a prominent secular peace activist. "They have a lot of support."

The re-emergence of the Islamists would be another setback to the Bush administration's efforts to block the creation of an Islamist regime in the Horn of Africa. Although the majority of Somalis believe that the Islamic Courts' political agenda is law and order - not terrorism - U.S. officials have charged that the movement's leaders sheltered three al-Qaida members who've carried out terrorist attacks on American and Israeli targets in East Africa in the past decade.

Somalia's transitional government blames the Islamists for a growing insurgency that's led to the deaths of dozens of civilians and forced some 10,000 residents to flee Mogadishu. Islamist fighters have denied launching the attacks, but strongly oppose the government, which rode into Mogadishu on the heels of the Ethiopians.

The Bush administration views the Ethiopian campaign as a success, because it swiftly removed the Islamist political leadership from power. But because militia commanders ordered their men to retreat rather than fight the Ethiopians, outside analysts believe [that] they suffered few losses.

U.S. forces launched two airstrikes on southern Somalia in January, the first of which killed eight militiamen. But neither claimed the lives of any of the al-Qaida targets or the top Courts leaders, U.S. officials have said.

Meanwhile, the factors that propelled the Islamist movement to power last summer - Mogadishu's all-too-familiar routine of mortar attacks, scattered gun battles and general insecurity - have returned. By imposing strict religious law during their six-month reign, the Courts provided a respite from the anarchy and clan-based violence that have shadowed the city since 1991.

"We made the city peaceful, but today you can see how everything is different," said Ahmed Ali, a 36-year-old fighter who joined the militias after his parents were killed in a shootout at a roadblock in 1999.

In interviews last week, Ali and two other fighters - members of the radical wing known as Hisb'ul Shabaab, or "Party of Youth" - said [that] they were under orders not to carry out attacks. But they said that influential elders from Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan, angry at government policies, have begun to reconstitute small groups of militiamen who now meet secretly across the city.

While the Islamists' political wing is in disarray, outside analysts say [that] Shabaab's core leadership remains intact, and that Mogadishu's chaos allows clandestine cells to function almost undisturbed.

"The loss of its safe haven will not necessarily spell Shabaab's end," the International Crisis Group research agency said in a recent report.

"The network is still there. We are all in contact often," Ahmed Abdullah Hassan, 29, the outspoken leader of a small group of fighters, told a visiting American reporter. "I am telling you, we could be very near to fighting government troops."

Some doubt that the Islamists are ready to take up arms. For one thing, the movement's supreme leader, Hassan Dahir Aweys, who's on U.S. and international terrorist watch lists, and top Shabaab leader, Adan Hashi Ayro, an Afghanistan-trained jihadist, are believed to be in hiding outside Mogadishu. Analysts believe that Ayro was injured or possibly killed in one of the U.S. airstrikes.

Others say [that] it's too soon, with thousands of Ethiopian troops still in the country and an African Union peacekeeping force due to arrive soon.

But neither Somalia's patchwork security forces nor the African peacekeepers have the manpower or [the] will to go after the militants or their weapons.

U.S. officials want interim President Abdullahi Yusuf to make peace with moderate Islamists, and perhaps bring some of them into his administration. People in Somalia say that the U.S. Embassy in neighboring Kenya helped ensure safe passage for one leading moderate, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, to Nairobi last month, when he met privately with Ambassador Michael Ranneberger before fleeing into exile in Yemen.

So far, Yusuf refuses to negotiate with the Islamists. Some Somalis believe [that] that could hasten the Islamists' resurgence and [could] possibly draw in more fighters from Somalia and abroad.

"If the situation remains the way it is, that would bring an opportunity for the Islamic Courts to become an effective, armed opposition," said Ahmed Abdisalam Adan, a managing partner of the HornAfrik media corporation. "In the absence of more credible institutions, they can prevail."

If the Bush administration can't persuade Yusuf to negotiate, it would mark the second political setback in a year for U.S. policy in Somalia, which has been a trouble spot since the deaths of 18 U.S. servicemen in a 1993 Mogadishu street battle that was depicted in the movie "Black Hawk Down."

Last year, the CIA covertly funded a coalition of Mogadishu warlords against the Islamists, which only increased popular opposition to the warlords and failed after a few months.

Mohammed Afrah Qanyare, a leader of that coalition and formerly the city's most powerful warlord, told McClatchy Newspapers that while workaday Somalis had grown tired of the Islamists' legal strictures, the militias probably have the power to retake the country.

"The only way they can come back," Qanyare said, "is by force."

Mortars fired after AU peacekeepers land

Mar 5 2007 IOL report - Mortars fired after peacekeepers land - by Sahal Abdulle - excerpt:

Mogadishu - More than a dozen mortar bombs were fired at Mogadishu's airport on Tuesday shortly after Ugandan soldiers landed there as the vanguard of an African Union peacekeeping force.

At least 16 loud explosions from the mortar strikes went off near the airport where roughly 350 Ugandans were decamped after landing in the morning, a Reuters' witness said.

"The military side of the airport has been hit. We cannot cross from this side to the other side. We don't know if anyone has been wounded there," said the reporter for a local media outlet, who saw the mortar bombs hit and who declined to be identified.

The military wing is about a kilometre away from the civilian wing of the seaside airport.

Most of the Ugandans were flown in by the Algerian air force in American-made C-130 cargo planes, landing in a city where the interim government and its Ethiopian allies face almost daily attacks.

The Ugandans are the first peacekeepers to enter Mogadishu since a well-funded US and UN peacekeeping mission in the early 1990s failed and ended in a bloody withdrawal after battles with heavily armed militiamen.

Last week, 35 Ugandan officers landed in Baidoa, the government's temporary capital in south-central Somalia. More are expected to arrive in the coming days to bring the Ugandan contingent to about 1 600.

The Ugandans are the vanguard of an AU force designed to help Somalia's interim government secure the Horn of Africa country after routing a rival Islamist movement which held most of southern Somalia for six months.

Leaders of the ousted Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) went into hiding vowing to wage holy war against foreign troops.

"We are ready to deploy and defend the Somali people," said Ugandan army Captain Paddy Ankunda, also a spokesperson for the AU mission.

Two unmarked Russian-made Antonov cargo aircraft also brought three white military vehicles emblazoned with AU markings and two armoured personnel carriers.

The AU force, proposed to eventually number about 8 000, is expected to replace Ethiopian troops who helped the government mount a successful December offensive the SICC.

But as with its first peacekeeping foray, in Sudan's Darfur region, the AU is facing a shortage of money and equipment.

"I hope our partners would help us overcome the funding and logistical problems facing the AU," said Said Djinnit, AU's commissioner for peace and security in Addis Ababa.

Officials from President Abdullahi Yusuf's government and warlords who had once ruled Mogadishu were at the airport, which was under heavy security.

Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi and Burundi are also expected to send troops to join the AU force.

The Ugandans are assigned to patrol Mogadishu, one of the world's most dangerous and gun-infested cities.

None of the previous 13 attempts at a central government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre have succeeded in taming the city.

The guerrillas who strike almost daily in Mogadishu are suspected to be a mix of Islamists and clan militiamen who feel the government does not represent their interests, or who stand to lose control of fiefdoms if central authority is imposed.

"Our mission is not to fight, but if the lives of troops are endangered, they have the right to fight back," Djinnit said.

(Additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa)

AU peacekeeping force attacked in Somalia

Mar 6 2007 13:19 GMT BBC NEWS World Africa report excerpt:

The airport in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, has been attacked as the first African Union (AU) peacekeepers arrived in the country.

A BBC correspondent says eight mortars were fired during a ceremony to welcome the 400 Ugandan troops.

One person was wounded in the attack and three other civilians have died in heavy clashes elsewhere in the city.

Note, the report explains

The AU force is taking over from Ethiopian troops who intervened to help Somalia's transitional government oust the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

Somalia enjoyed a six-month lull in the insecurity that has dogged the country for the past 16 years while the UIC was in power last year.

But violence has escalated in the past two months.

UK prepares commando unit to free Ethiopia hostages

Mar 5 2007 AFP report (via ST) excerpt;

Britain reportedly prepared a commando unit to rescue five of its nationals kidnapped in northern Ethiopia, as Addis Ababa on Monday refused to back claims that Eritrean soldiers carried out the abduction.

The Britons, all linked to Britain’s embassy in Addis Ababa, were kidnapped last Thursday in the remote Afar desert region near the Eritrean border, according to the Ethiopian state news agency.

London has already sent a crisis team to Ethiopia in an effort to obtain the release of the five, along with their Ethiopian drivers and interpreters.

Some 60 SAS troops have already been dispatched to neighbouring Djibouti, the British Daily Mirror reported Monday, while the Times talked of a "substantial" team and the Guardian said special forces were already in Ethiopia itself.

Hunt for missing British tourists

Whitehall officials earlier told the BBC there was "a national security dimension" to the group's disappearance. - BBC Mar 3 2007.

Ugandan troops 'not peacemakers' (BBC)

Mar 1 2007 BBC news report excerpt:

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni says Ugandan soldiers being deployed to Somalia, will not disarm militias.

Mr Museveni, who bade farewell to 1,700 troops at a ceremony in Jinja, said they will train the Somali army, help the government, but not impose peace.

An advance team of African Union (AU) troops reportedly arrived in Baidoa in southern Somalia on Thursday.

First batch of AU peacekeepers lands in Somalia

Mar 1 2007 Reuters report:

By Sahal Abdulle

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The Ugandan vanguard of an African peacekeeping force intended to help Somalia's interim government tighten its tenuous grip on the anarchic nation flew into the country on Thursday, witnesses said.

Underlining the formidable task awaiting the African Union (AU) mission, gunmen shot dead three people at the house of the director of Mogadishu's port, the latest in a wave of guerrilla-style attacks in the coastal capital.

A cargo plane dropped off 35 uniformed Ugandan officers early in the morning at the government stronghold of Baidoa, customs officer Ali Mohamed Adan said. Police officer Isak Hassan Warsame also said he saw the Ugandan officers land.

But Ugandan army Capt. Paddy Ankunda, a spokesman for the AU mission, denied any military personnel had left yet. "There are no troops in Somalia," he said in Uganda.

Baidoa is the south-central trading town the government used as a temporary base before ousting militant Islamists from Mogadishu in a December offensive backed by Ethiopia's military.

The town is expected to be a key rear staging area for the proposed 8,000-strong AU force, designed to replace Ethiopian troops who helped President Abdullahi Yusuf's government defeat the Islamists in less than two weeks.

The Ugandan peacekeepers are due to patrol Mogadishu, one of the world's most dangerous and gun-infested cities.

In the latest attack there, unidentified gunmen struck the house of port director Abdi Jiinow on Thursday morning. A reporter at the scene, Abdullahi Addow, said three people died -- one attacker, a bodyguard and a visitor to the house.

MUSEVENI BIDS FAREWELL

Uganda has kept the exact troop deployment date secret, aware that insurgents who blast away almost daily at joint government-Ethiopian forces in Mogadishu have threatened to attack any peacekeepers or government allies.

The insurgents are suspected to be a mix of Islamist guerrillas and clan militia fighting for control of the city.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni waved off two battalions of peacekeepers at a ceremony on Thursday as they prepared to deploy. Officials said the 1,635 troops would land in Mogadishu, as soon as equipment arrives by sea, probably next week.

"This is a fully capable force to undertake any task within (its) mandate," Museveni shouted out to silent rows of soldiers in bright green AU berets at a barracks in Jinja, east of Kampala, where they underwent peacekeeping training.

Last year, Uganda denied witness accounts and a U.N. report that a handful of its personnel were inside Somalia. Ethiopia did likewise for most of 2006, denying almost daily witness sightings of thousands of its troops.

Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi and Burundi are also expected to send troops to bring the force to about half its planned strength of nine battalions.

As with its previous peacekeeping foray in Sudan's violent Darfur region, the AU is facing a shortage of money and equipment.

Somalia has been in anarchy since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. A well-funded U.S.-U.N. peacekeeping mission in the mid-1990s ended in failure and a bloody withdrawal.

Under foreign pressure to make his government more inclusive, Yusuf told parliament on Thursday a national reconciliation conference would be held in Mogadishu on April 16 with 3,000 delegates from Somalia's myriad clans and factions.

Sudanese President partakes in Sana'a Grouping Summit held in Ethiopia

Via SudaneseOnline.com - Sudanese President partakes in Sana'a Grouping Summit held in Ethiopia :

KHARTOUM, Feb 24 (KUNA) -- Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir was to lead a delegation tomorrow to Sana'a Grouping Summit, scheduled to be held in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa next Monday February 26, Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) Saturday.

Heads of state and government of the four countries comprising the grouping, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen and Somalia, were to take part in the summit's conference, the agency added.

Furthermore, the meetings would look into a number of issues, evaluation of the performance during the previous period, implementation of agreements and resolutions issued earlier and establishment of permanent secretariat.

The summit would also discuss conflicts in the region, top of which were Somalia and Darfur, besides discussing aspects of economic cooperation among the four states, as meetings of the experts already began last Thursday and looked into preparations and agenda of the Addis Ababa Summit.

Sana'a Grouping of Red Sea and Horn of Africa Nations was spearheaded by Yemen in 2002 to bring stability, in addition to political and economic cooperation to the area.

'Protect Somalis' Red Cross urges

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has called for the warring parties in Somalia to protect civilians caught in the conflict.

Hundreds of civilians have been wounded in fighting between Ethiopian-backed government forces and Islamist fighters since January, the ICRC said.

Full story by BBC 24 Feb 2007.

Somalia to get 8,000 peacekeepers

Feb 21 2007 BBC report:

The United Nations Security Council has approved the deployment of an African Union peacekeeping force to Somalia.

A resolution has urged all AU member states to contribute troops. Moreover, a UN force may arrive in six months.