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US deploys military advisers to Somalia (January 2014)

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For those unaware, this is to support the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) whose own motley forces are trying to secure the country with the help of Kenyan troops, Ethiopian troops and other African Union (AU) member nations' peacekeepers there. 

They are fighting against the Al-Qaeda-affiliated group Al-Shabab, who controls most of the country outside Mogadishu (except for the breakaway provinces of Puntland and Somaliland up north). Al-Shabab is reportedly responsible for that horrific mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya last year.

U.S. has deployed military advisers to Somalia, officials say

The U.S. military has deployed a small number of uniformed trainers and advisers to the failed state of Somalia for the first time since 1993, when two helicopters were shot down and 18 Americans were killed in the failed “Black Hawk Down” operation.

A cell of U.S. military personnel has been stationed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu since last fall to advise and coordinate operations with African troops fighting to wrest control of the country from the al-Shabab militia, an Islamist group whose leaders have professed loyalty to al-Qaeda, according to three U.S. military officials.

(...)

The United States has also spent more than $170 million to build up the nascent Somali national army, although that force is relatively weak and unreliable.

The African Union forces control most of Mogadishu and are making gradual headway in securing other territory. Ethi­o­pia and Kenya have also sent troops into Somalia and control regions near their borders. Despite all the interventions, however, al-Shabab remains a potent force and in control of large parts of the country.

Al-Shabab, which means “the youth” in Arabic, has been leading an insurgency for several years against Somalia’s Western-backed leaders. The militia imposes strict Islamic law over the cities and villages it controls. Its leaders announced a merger with al-Qaeda two years ago, although U.S. analysts differ on how much of a direct threat it poses to the United States.

The militia has organized several terrorist plots in other countries in East Africa, including a four-day armed siege of an upscale shopping center in Nairobi in September that killed dozens of people.

Somalia has been plagued by famine and civil strife for more than two decades.

For many years, Mogadishu was known as one of the most dangerous cities in the world, a symbol of the lawlessness that gripped the entire country. Conditions are slowly improving, and the State Department has said it wants to reopen an embassy in the capital, but is waiting for terrorist threats to subside further.

“We eventually need to establish a permanent U.S. diplomatic presence in Somalia,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for African affairs, told a Senate panel in October. “Ultimately, it is the security conditions in Somalia that will dictate when we can establish a more permanent presence and we recognize that the time is not right to do this.”

(...)


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Washington Post
 
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