...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
Mission in Somalia (Amisom) held a "very successful" seminar in the Rwandan capital that brought together experts on international and humanitarian law with the aim of enhancing the protection of civilians as the AU battles cut-throats in Mogadishu.
Says Mr Wafula Wamunyinyi, the deputy Special Representative of the AU in Somalia: "What we require now is the political will. What we decided here will have to be approved by the leadership of the African Union.''
Earlier, addressing the meeting, Mr Boubacar Diarra, the AU's special representative in Somalia said: "We went to Somalia to help dialogue and reconciliation and to help in delivery of humanitarian assistance but we face groups that don't agree with the model of democracy we want to instal in Somalia.''
In a discussion that got a lot of inputs from experts, among them Mr Walter Lotze, an AU adviser on peace-keeping and Ms Funmi Vogt, of the King's College London, African Leadership Centre, the AU's current mandate was dissected and the bad news was that despite the fact that its troops are offering humanitarian assistance to displaced persons in Mogadishu - the Somali capital - the mandate under which the force was created by the UN in 2007 did not specifically authorise its officers to help civilians.
It is now the duty of the AU's peace and Security Council to come up with guidelines for the protection of civilians.
Said Mr Diarra: "We want our peacekeepers to know their duty and responsibility to the Somali people. We deal with an environment where the protection of civilians is important.''
The meeting noted that a
l-Shabaab... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim
al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
, the radical group battling the country's transitional federal government, engaged in provocative action, but it was the duty of Amisom peacekeepers not to fall in this trap.
The gathering was told of the setting up "no fire zones'' in which Amisom peacekeepers would avoid hitting back if al-Shabaab fired from any populated area such as Bakara market or a mosque.
Amisom's political officer James Nagin said: "Somalis need gainful employment, they need to put food on the table.''
He disclosed that 1.4 million Somalis were internally displaced and living in camps while 600,000 others were in refugee camps in neighbouring Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia. Some Somalis have been living in camps for the past 20 years.
Mr Nagin said Amisom's mandate in Somalia was to facilitate dialogue among various groups and to protect the transitional federal government and its institutions, but before it can protect Somalis, it must first protect its own soldiers.
He said: "We are not in Somalia to fight al-Shabaab. For our force commanders, it is a big dilemma if your troops are attacked and you don't respond.''