Vol. 73/No. 4      February 2, 2009

The proimperialist interim government now controls only the remaining two bases with some 10,000 troops. African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi, which number about 2,400, are defending the presidential palace.

The current government in Mogadishu was set up in December 2006 when a U.S.-backed invasion by Ethiopian troops ousted the Somali Islamic Courts Council from power. The Ethiopian government has maintained a force in Somalia since then but had made little progress in strengthening the Somali government in Mogadishu. Rival bourgeois Islamist forces have been gaining ground, particularly in southern Somalia.

Somalia’s strategic position in the Horn of Africa is important to the major imperialist powers for military reasons and because it is a major trade route between Europe and Asia.

Washington secured a resolution from the UN Security Council January 16 expressing intent to establish a UN troop presence in Somalia. The resolution calls for the UN force to replace the African Union troops currently stationed there and enforce “the effective reestablishment and training of inclusive Somali security forces, including military police and judiciary.”

But UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in December he had approached 50 governments to participate in such a multinational force and their response was “very lukewarm or negative.”

The U.S. Navy announced January 15 that Washington is close to a deal with an unnamed government in the region that would agree to prosecute and imprison those captured by the U.S. military on piracy charges.

Last month the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution authorizing military operations on Somali land and airspace against “piracy.”  
 
 
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