BUB: Updates on Somalia

There's still military action in and around Somalia, completely unrelated to piracy.

There's a pending military offensive. Sort of.

Top Somali officials are threatening to begin a military offensive against Islamist insurgents but critics - some of them demoralized soldiers - say a lack of equipment, funds and training put any ultimate success into doubt.

The offensive has been planned for months and has been postponed repeatedly, but questions remain about whether it can bring long-term security in a country suffering from almost two decades of conflict.

It is still unclear when the offensive will begin or what it will entail. Somali forces are hampered by a lack of equipment, late paychecks, and some complain they do not even have enough food.

"There is nothing the government has done but survive," said Mogadishu resident Sheik Mohamud Abdulle. "We have been hearing of late the government's threat to the rebels, but we expect little from any military action as long as its soldiers are not regularly paid."

Nevertheless, Somalia's president and state defense minister have both asserted in recent days that Somali troops - many of whom were trained outside the Horn of Africa nation - are ready. Somali officials have pleaded with the international community to help defeat militants, saying they pose a threat to world security.

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In the meantime, NATO nations are training Ugandans for peacekeeping in Somalia.

BELGIAN and French army instructors are training the Ugandan army for deployment in Somalia under the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission, dubbed AMISOM.

The 1,600 soldiers are undergoing training in convoy escorting, land mine sweeping, detection of explosives, cordon and search operations, check point monitoring and self-defence.

“My mission in Uganda is to train the over 1,600 UPDF soldiers to be deployed in Mogadishu in May. The training will take five weeks,” Lt. Col. Rousselle Gabriel, the head of the foreign instructors, said.

He added that there were 35 instructors from France and two from Belgium.

Rousselle was briefing the visiting ambassadors from Belgium and France, Marc Gedopt and Rene Forceville, at the Singo army training school in Luwero on Friday.

“The soldiers are also being trained in carrying out first aid during combat, evacuting the victims to a safe areas, short distance shooting range and self-defence using martial arts,” Rousselle stated.

The visitors were received at the training school by the commandant, Col. Christopher Bbosa. He said American army instructors will take over training from February 15.

The Belgian ambassador said the agreement for the 37 instructors to train UPDF was signed between Uganda and France. He said Belgium was only giving support to the French instructors, especially in the area of land mine clearing.

By: Brant