Bartamaha (Nairobi):- A top Somali cleric has backed the government’s call for military assistance from neighboring countries and the deployment of more foreign troops to the country.
Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed had pleaded for assistance to help restore stability in Somalia during an extraordinary session of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“A Muslim government can invite everyone to help it stabilize its country, no mater whether they are infidels or not, but the importance is to look for solutions,” Somali cleric Sheikh Omar Faruk said in response during a tele-conference on Saturday.
The East African regional meeting responded on Monday by announcing a decision to urgently send 2,000 extra troops to the violence-wracked country.
The decision, however, faced strong opposition from leaders of armed groups such as al-Shabab who charged that the pledged troops would be from Ethiopia. They also accused President Sheikh Ahmed of requesting for help from the “infidels,” and handing the whole country over to IGAD.
Al-Shabab has vowed to fight against any new peacekeeping troops sent to assist the Somali government. On Wednesday, the militants held rallies in protest to the promised troop surge in Beledweyne and three other towns where they reportedly went door-to-door and forced people to attend the rallies.
But Faruk called on al-Shabab and Hezbal Islam militants to lay down their arms and join the negotiation table with the government in Somalia which has the recognition and support of the international community.
The pledged 2,000 peacekeepers to Somalia are supposed to aid about 6,000 others from Burundi and Uganda already in the violent Somali capital, Mogadishu.
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Source:-Press TV.
