Somali govt hopes to tame Mogadishu quickly
Source: Reuters
MOGADISHU, March 11 (Reuters) - The Somali government hopes to pacify Mogadishu within 30 days, a senior official said on Sunday, in a test for the interim administration which welcomed the vanguard of an African peacekeeping mission this week. Deputy Defence Minister Salad Ali Jele said an advance team of newly trained security forces had been deployed to the city where insurgents are attacking government forces and their Ethiopian allies on an almost daily basis. Several residents said up to three Ethiopian trucks were ambushed 60 km (37 miles) south of Mogadishu late on Saturday. There was no word on casualties. "Thousands of our troops have finished their training," Jele told reporters. "We will secure Mogadishu within 30 days." "Our troops will start securing the streets and the areas where the troublemakers live," he said, but gave no date for when the mission would start. Jele was speaking a day after newly trained security forces clashed with police at a Mogadishu police station in a gun battle that killed one person and wounded two. Addis Ababa has started to pull out troops that in December helped the government oust Islamist rivals who controlled much of southern Somalia for six months. The Ethiopians are to make way for an African Union force, which started arriving in Mogadishu on Tuesday. More than 1,000 Ugandans have landed in the capital. They have faced at least two assaults against them by guerrillas, thought to include defeated Islamist fighters. Many residents say if professional soldiers are vulnerable to attack, the dangers are much worse for them in a city that has been ruled by the gun since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, carving the country into fiefdoms. The government has largely failed to disarm the residents of Mogadishu. Many have formed neighbourhood vigilante groups, saying they cannot count on the security forces or police to protect them against violence.
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