Forty Tons of Guns for Somalia

The US State Department on 25 June confirmed that it has been external page providing arms and ammunition to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia in an attempt to defeat various militia groups around the country, some of which the State Department has labeled terrorist organizations.

Al-Shabaab (The Youth) is one such organization that reportedly external page controls most of southern and central Somalia, including most of the capital Mogadishu with a force of approximately 300. The US believes that the group is threatening the stability of Somalia to the detriment of US interests in the country, which has forced Washington to provide “external page training to government officers and recruits in neighboring Djibouti, where hundreds of U.S. troops, including Special Forces have been based since 9/11.”

Arming Somalia

Anonymous State Department officials have stated that the external page US has shipped at least “forty tones worth of arms and munitions into Somalia” beginning sometime around early May, according to Reuters. The US government has also agreed to financially assist the governments of Kenya, Burundi and Uganda to train Somali troops.

According to the Washington Post, a State Department official recently explained that aside from the 40-plus tons of weapons already sent to Somalia, “The U.S. external page government is providing cash to [the Somali government] to buy weapons, and has asked Ugandan military forces there to give Somali soldiers small arms and ammunition […] The U.S. government is then resupplying the Ugandans”

So far, the US is giving logistical support to the African Union (AU), which currently holds a 4,300-strong UN-mandated force comprised mostly of Ugandan nationals. Despite calls from the interim Somali government for the AU and UN to provide more troops, the mandate for the peacekeeping mission has yet to be expanded. According to the Washington Post, Kenya and Ethiopia have already external page decided against sending any more of their own troops or security forces to Somalia after Al-Shabaab threatened to external page escalate violence if any country or organization sent in more weapons or personnel, or if the AU peacekeeping mandate was changed to a peace-making operation, Salon.com reported.

On 3 July, Somalia’s foreign minister said that “several more battalions of AMISOM troops are likely to be external page deployed in Mogadishu and that AMISOM's rules of engagement may be changed to allow the troops to do more than defend against insurgent attacks.”

On 5 July, John Carson, former US ambassador to Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya and now assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said that an external page 800-strong force from Burundi “was ready to deploy as soon as an airlift is provided.” Carson later stated the government of Djibouti was consulting with the State Department after indicating a willingness to deploy a number of its soldiers.

In a recent external page podcast interview with rabble.ca, Tom Naylor, professor of economics at McGil University, summarized the volatile themes that makes up Somalia: “You have regional warlords asserting power, you have a very weak central government that has to make deals using a little bit of intimidation where it can but usually using corruption - buying allegiances and so on - and you have American intervention in part for strategic reasons in part for economic.”

Somalia continues to be rich with natural gas and a potentially large reservoir of oil that western companies would be more than eager to exploit given a more politically stable environment. However, according to Jamestown.org, China has at least external page four state-backed energy companies ready to undercut private western interests in Somalia, which would add to its growing list of investments throughout the African continent.

US interests

In the broader war on terror, the Obama administration wants a stable to Somalia to serve as a launching pad for American forces that could potentially end the piracy problem, secure or control an energy market against Chinese interests, and suppress the rise of non-state forces in Somalia, while demonstrating to a Muslim world willingness to cooperate and collaborate with Muslim countries against common threats.

In a recent interview with WorldFocus, David Shinn, former ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, outlined how the external page US should approach the complexity that is Somalia: “The United States should deal with Somalia in collaboration with other interested countries so that responsibility for Somalia is an international responsibility, not an American undertaking. The United States should not see Somalia solely in the context of counterterrorism, which it did until early 2008. This approach damaged U.S. goals and interests in the region. Counterterrorism should be only a part of the policy, not the entire policy.”

However, since Washington can not politically justify another attack on a Muslim country nor be satisfied with a complete takeover of Somalia by a so-called terrorist organization, the US will more than likely continue training support programs in neighboring countries while quietly increasing arms and munitions shipments to the TFG for counterterrorism operations. The latest 40-ton weapons shipment should therefore be seen as a strategic investment to protect US interests, part of which has now become a feature of Somalia’s political economy.

The government of Uganda praised the shipment of arms from the US and its government seems to have little reservations in supplying Ugandan forces for the peacekeeping mission. Indeed, Uganda has become a valuable reserve of inexpensive labor for the private military and security industry, as thousands of its nationals are currently employed with American companies in Iraq. Private security companies have since deployed to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean to provide maritime security for shipping vessels along the coast of Somalia.

July will be a key month for East Africa. With troops gathering on the Ethiopian and Kenyan-Somali border, the anticipation of an increased political crisis seems inevitable. With one-third of the country’s population in external page dire need of food aid, according to the BBC, and fewer places to evacuate, Somalia is not likely any time soon to see a stable security infrastructure that enables the US and other actors in the country a feasible location from which to exploit natural resources or launch future military campaigns.