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UN envoy calls on Govt to negotiate with Al shabaab
[SHABELLENEWS] Defeating al-Shabaab...  the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...snuffies in Somalia requires a "carrot and stick" approach that could eventually include political negotiations with the Islamist holy warriors, the U.N.’s top official in the country tells Newsweek. The ever-helpful UN... Somalia’s President Mohammed Abdullahi Farmajo, elected in February, has declared a state of war against the al-Qaeda affiliate. The president offered a 60-day amnesty to disaffected members of the group in April and has pledged to eradicate it within two years. Al-Shabaab emerged from the Islamic Courts Union that was ousted from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, by Æthiopian forces in 2006. The snuffies have carried out major attacks in Somalia and neighboring countries, such as Kenya, and regularly carry out suicide kabooms in the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing civilians, government officials and soldiers. Michael Keating, the Special Representative of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Somalia, tells Newsweek that while the offer of an amnesty was a good start, it would not be sufficient to placate the holy warrior group. "I don’t think an amnesty on its own is going to work. It’s a signal more than a strategy, saying ’We do not consider you all to be dyed in the wool ideological enemies,’" says Keating, speaking on the sidelines of a major international conference on Somalia in London Thursday. "The amnesty is part of that carrot approach, but you also need the stick approach, particularly if they’re using violence to advance their political objectives." Posted by: Fred 2017-05-18 |
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