Somali lawmakers appeal for support against insurgents
NAIROBI — Somali lawmakers on Wednesday appealed to the international community to provide necessary support to enable the Somali transitional government to fend off mounting attacks by insurgents in the Horn of Africa nation.
Speaking in Nairobi, more than 50 Somali legislators also condemned foreign governments for providing support to the local militia who have waged nearly daily attacks on the fledging government.
"Our condemnation are geared towards Al Shabaab and Hisbul Islam who are responsible for the barbaric events taking place in Somalia," lawmaker Awad Ashara told journalists in Nairobi.
"We appeal to the international community to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the Somali displaced victims who fled from their homes," said the lawmakers who fled the eight-month long fighting and current resides in Kenya.
Fighters from Al-Shabaab and Hezbul Islam, an allied faction, have been launching attacks against forces loyal to President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a moderate Islamist elected in January by the expanded Somali parliament following successful UN-brokered peace talks between the Somali government and a faction led by Sheikh Ahmed.
Al-Shabaab now effectively controls almost the entire south and central portions of Somalia except for few pockets run by Hezbul Islam, which also partly controls the central Somali town of Beledweyn, the last stronghold of pro-government forces in central Somalia.
The Somalia legislators who held informal meeting in Nairobi on Wednesday called for their neighbors to provide military help but many of their neighbors are of the belief that the international community, not just Somalia's neighbors, should help Somalia stabilize the situation.
"We appeal to the international community to provide tangible security, financial and political support to the TFG to discharge its responsibility," said lawmaker Ali Basha.
The lawmakers also called on the fledgling government to create a secure and conducive environment for Parliament to operate and undertake its legislative tasks by ensuring the safety and security of the lawmakers.
"The government should encourage Members of Parliament to come back to the country to discharge their functions. The government should urgently complete the set up of the independent judiciary in line with the Standing Orders of the Transitional Federal Charter," they said.
Scores of Somali politicians have fled the war-torn Horn of Africa nation last month amid escalating clashes.
The lawmakers who now reside in Nairobi, Asmara and Ethiopia fled the war-torn nation with sources saying that as few as 280 MPs remain in Mogadishu, with 250 needed to make a quorum in the 550-seat assembly, based in the capital.
One legislator quit parliament last month warning the parliament was doomed after several high-profile assassinations involving senior government officials and lawmakers.
The legislators decried that the current instability in their country cannot allow them to discharge their legislative talks and urged foreign countries to change the mandate of the African Union Mission (AMISOM) to enhance peacekeepers role to stabilize Somalia.
"We believe that the mandate of the AMISOM should be changed to allow them secure the safety of the MPs to make them work as legislators," Ashara said.
Somalia, a nation of about 8 million people, has experienced almost constant conflict since the collapse of its central government in January 1991.
- Xinhua