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Besieged Somali govt declares emergency state
[Al Arabiya Latest] Somalia's president, clinging to power by his fingertips in his Mogadishu palace, on Monday declared a state of emergency in a bid to contain a deadly six-week-old insurgent offensive.
That'll help. Especially if accompanied by a sharply worded note on the official presidential letterhead.
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Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's announcement came amid growing talk of fresh foreign military action to flush out hard line Islamist groups, less than six months after Ethiopia ended a two-year intervention which failed to do just that.
| Kenya is talking of doing something helpful...And Ethiopia is already there, however quietly. |
The measure should have little impact on the ground in a country plagued by chaos since 1991 and over which Sharif's forces have no control but could facilitate his administration's request for foreign military assistance.
| Send in the mighty Uruguayans! But not the Pakistanis -- everyone knows they arrive without weapons, proper clothing, or adequate food, and Somalia is certainly not the country to properly supply and equip them. |
| And they don't come with any idea of fighting, and their officers aren't particularly interested -- just ask the Rangers who were in Mog in '93 ... |
"As of today, the country is under a state of emergency," Sharif said at press conference in the capital, during a brief lull in fighting that has killed at least 300 people nationwide since May 7.
The president said the government had decided to announce the emergency "after witnessing the intensifying violence across the country."
According to a presidential aide, the decree still has to be approved by parliament to be officially effective. It was not immediately clear where and when the national assembly would convene.
| Prob'ly somewhere out of country, preferably at peaceful a five star hotel not likely to be blown up by Pakistani jacketwallas gone off the reservation. |
Posted by: Fred 2009-06-23 |
