NAIROBI: Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed asked for more international help on Friday to battle hard-line insurgents after holding what he called a historic meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton pledged strong support for Ahmed’s fragile administration after meeting him in Nairobi on Thursday, and she warned that Washington would take action against Eritrea if it did not stop supporting Somalia’s rebels.
Ahmed told Reuters the discussions showed the United States’ commitment to restoring peace in Somalia. But he said his government, which controls only parts of the capital Mogadishu, needed more help from overseas to beat the militants.
“The Somali government alone cannot bring a solution to the mayhem these groups are causing society,” Ahmed said in an interview. “If we don’t confront them with the assistance of the world, the situation may turn into an uncontainable security threat.”
Western security agencies say the Horn of Africa nation is a haven for extremists planning attacks in the region and beyond.
Australian police said this week they had uncovered a plot to attack a Sydney army base by men they said had links to Al-Shabab, which Washington says is Al-Qaeda’s proxy in Somalia.
Ahmed said African countries wanted to help, but they needed money from the West.
The president praised Burundi for sending a battalion of 850 soldiers last week, bringing the strength of the AU peacekeeping force in the capital to more than 5,000. Ahmed also said foreign militants in Al-Shabab’s ranks had imported a hard-line version of Islam that most Somalis rejected.
“They are using religion as political tool, which we will not allow. Islam is a religion of peace and harmony. I cannot set a deadline for the liberation of Mogadishu, but we will free our people from these new-style gangsters,” he said.
“We are working on reforming the security forces and using other civil structures that reject these foreign ideas, and I hope the (whole) capital will be under government control soon.”
