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United States Department of State (Washington, DC)

Somalia: Background Briefing on U.S. Assistance to the Transitional Federal Government

27 June 2009

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document

Washington — A background briefing by a senior official of the United States Department of State in Washington, DC on June 26, 2009:

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:  Thank you all very much for coming this afternoon.  I know that many of you are very interested in what is happening in Somalia today, and most particularly interested in the U.S. position with respect to Somalia and why we have, in fact, taken that position.

The U.S. is deeply concerned about developments in Somalia for several different reasons.  All of you know that Somalia has been without an effective central government for the past 20 years, but in the recent months and recent years, the situation there has become increasingly unstable.  The instability in Somalia today has generated a cancer inside of the country.  We see enormous humanitarian problems around all of southern Somalia, where some 60 or 70 percent of the country’s population in the south are in need of some kind of humanitarian and food assistance.

We see widespread unemployment and we see large movements of people out of Mogadishu, which has probably lost over half of its population in the last couple of years – enormous numbers of people displaced.

We have also seen this cancer of instability metastasize to the region.  We see enormous refugee flows out of Somalia into Kenya.  Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya, built over a decade ago to handle 90,000 people, now has a refugee population in excess of 270,000.  Some 6- to 7,000 Somalis leave Somalia every month and cross into Kenya.

QUESTION:  What was the – I’m sorry, what was the original – what was it set up for?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:  Set up for 90,000 people.

QUESTION:  Okay, sorry.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:  Today, a suburb of Nairobi, Eastleigh, probably is if not the largest, certainly one of the largest Somali cities in East Africa, reflecting the movement of large population groups out of Somalia into the safety of Kenya, taxing the services of the Kenyan Government in providing jobs, in providing schooling, in providing infrastructure to handle these large refugee flows.  Refugees have also flown and moved into other parts of East Africa.

Another regional manifestation of the problem there is the contribution that it makes in continuing tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea.  In some ways, the fighting in the south of Somalia amounts to a bit of a proxy conflict between those two countries who have had longstanding border problems and disagreements.

And we’ve also seen the problem metastasize to the international level as well in the form of piracy.  Because Somalia has no central government, has no police force, no court system, and because the economy, both the formal and the informal economy, have completely broken down, we have seen Somalis take to the sea to hijack an increasing number of international ships, including the Alabama Maersk¸ which was hijacked some two months ago, being an American vessel.

But the piracy, like the refugees, are an indication of how the instability, the continued instability in Somalia, has caused a great deal of concern.

The U.S. also is concerned that Somalia has become a safe haven for a small number of individuals who were involved with the destruction of the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salam in 1998, August of 1998, and also for the destruction of the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa in November of 2002, and the attempted destruction of an Israeli charter aircraft going into Mombasa.

For all of these reasons, but primarily for the first three, we think that we should do as much as we possibly can to support the African and regional efforts that are underway to help deal with this issue.  The U.S. strongly supports the Djibouti process, a process organized and run by IGAD and hosted by Djibouti, which led to reconciliation and the creation of the Transitional Federal Government.  We support that Djibouti process.  We support the Transitional Federal Government that has come out of it, and we support the current president of that Transitional Federal Government, President Sheikh Sharif, just as we supported the efforts of the previous Transitional Federal Government president, President Yusef.

This is something that the African states in the region, all except one, have endorsed.  It is something that the AU has endorsed.  The only state in the area that has not supported the Djibouti process, has not supported the efforts of the TFG, is the state of Eritrea.  Eritrea has played a spoilers role.  They have allowed the – allowed ammunition and supporters of the al-Shabaab, the extremist organization, a terrorist organization, to move supporters and equipment across the border into – the Eritreans have allowed supporters of al-Shabaab to move back and forth across the borders to be resupplied.  And we think that is of some concern.

Maybe I should stop right there.

MR. KELLY:  Okay.

QUESTION:  So what can you tell us about the decision to provide military assistance to Somalis, both materiel and training?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:   As I said, we have supported the TFG, the TFG’s leadership, and we have provided the support of arms and munitions and training to the TFG military consistent with the efforts of the regional states.  The governments of Uganda and Burundi have troops on the ground in Mogadishu in support of the TFG, and we have provided material assistance to the TFG government in order to help them stabilize the situation in the country and to deal – and to help deal with those regional issues that I described, as well as the international issues that have come out as a result thereof.  We thought this was also in our interest because providing support to a more stable Somalia would give it an opportunity to deal with individuals who might also be seeking safe haven there, individuals who’ve been involved in terrorists and terrorist activities.

QUESTION:  How recent was this decision, and how recently have they been supplied arms, ammunition, and has the training already started?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:  Well, we have been supporting the efforts of the Ugandan and Burundian forces since they went into Somalia nearly two years ago.  And we have been providing support to the TFG more recently as their situation has become more --

QUESTION:  How recently?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:  -- become much more --

QUESTION:  How recently?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:   Within the last year.

QUESTION:  But it’s the last couple months, the arms, right?  The arms --

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:   Yes.  Yes, the arms are --

QUESTION:  -- for the last couple of weeks?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:  The arms are very new, but we’ve been providing support for some time.

QUESTION:  Is this --

QUESTION:  What kind of weapons are they, just to be simple?  What kind of weaponry is it?  What kind of ammunitions?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:  We’re talking about – we’re talking about small arms.  And we’re --

QUESTION:  And are these --

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:  -- small arms and limited munitions.  This is not artillery pieces or armored vehicles or tanks.  These are small arms.

QUESTION:  And these are --

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL:  These are weapons that would be used in an urban environment, fighting a counter-guerilla insurgency.

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