This yea is the 20th since Somalia last had a central government. The four-year old African Union Mission in Somalia is fighting a desperate defensive action in support of a transitional government that is “corrupt and inept”, according to the International Crisis Group
As many as 50 soldiers belonging to AMISOM were killed in fighting at the end of February. AMISOM attacked Al-Shabaab, the Islamist group that controls many parts of Mogadishu as well as most of south and central Somalia, in a bid to expand the Transitional Federal Government’s influence and better protect its own bases.
But Ej Hogendoorn, Horn of Africa Project Director for ICG, says the mission’s real problem is the weakness of the administration it is in Somalia to protect.
You can read the interview with Mr. Hogendoorn at IPSAfrica where he talks of the odd the Ugandan and Burundian forces face in the battle for Somalia.
Rosebell Kagumire 