NAIROBI, May 4 (Reuters) – The United States is funding a coalition of Somali warlords fighting hardline Islamic militia in the capital Mogadishu as part of Washington’s war on terrorism, a Somali government spokesman said on Thursday.
Up to 90 people were killed in March in battles between fighters linked to the influential Islamic courts and those tied to a self-styled anti-terrorism coalition in Mogadishu, comprising most of the capital’s powerful warlords.
It was the worst violence in Somalia in years.
“The U.S. government funded the warlords in the recent battle in Mogadishu, there is no doubt about that,” spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters by telephone from Baidoa, where the interim Somali government is based.
“The warlords, through U.S support, have caused so many deaths of innocent civilians in the recent fighting in Mogadishu,” he said.
“This co-operation … only fuels further civil war.”
U.S. officials have declined comment on the persistent reports from foreign and local sources in Somalia that Washington has funnelled large sums of money to the alliance since the start of the year.
Washington has long viewed Somalia as a potential haven for extremists since it lacks central authority. Warlords overthrew military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Dinari urged the United States to respect Somalia’s sovereignty by working closely with President Abdullahi Yusuf’s fledgling government to prevent extremist cells forming in the nation of 10 million.
The recent fighting in the capital has demonstrated how little control Somalia’s government, formed in neighbouring Kenya in late 2004, has over the Horn of African nation.
Source: Reuters, May 4, 2003
