Shabelle: SOMALIA
MOGADISHU (Sh. M. Network) ---Somali clerics and elders in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu have strongly condemned Saturday the demand by Somalia’s foreign minister Mohamed Abdulahi Omaar.
Omaar said during speech before the Security Council on Friday it was urgent that extra battalions from AU to be sent to Somalia to bring the AMISOM peacekeepers closer to their target strength of 8,000 and that the domestic joint security force be funded and equipped.
Abdulahi Hassan Abukar known as Abdulahi Dhere, a spokesman for the Hawiye Clan Elders told Shabelle Media that it was a surprising thing about the demand of extra foreign troops and said the speech by the foreign minister was not the interest of the Somali people and called for the minister to rescind it.
“In fact we see the issue of demanding foreign troops as amazing thing, because the current foreign troops have a deadline to leave the country and no extra troops are needed in Somalia. We will fight any one who demands foreign troops as we did before,” said Abdulahi Dhere.
Sheik Ahmed Abdi, a leading member of Somali clerics also condemned and described the demand as a regrettable one.
“We are independent people, so demanding foreign troops is something against our religion and our sovereignty,” said Sheik Ahmed Abdi.
The decision by Somalia’s foreign minister Mohamed Abdulahi Omaar angered many Somalis who live in the capital and still remember the difficulties they met during the two-year occupation of the Ethiopian troops.
By Ahmednor Mohamed Farah
Wrong decision by Foreign Minister Mohamad Abdullahi Omaar. Infact the amisom peacekeepers must leave somalia within 120 days.
