EU to Train Somali Security Forces

By Lisa Bryant

Paris
17 November 2009

The European Union plans to train hundreds of Somali security forces
and possibly expand its anti-piracy mission off Somalia's coast in an
effort to bring stability to the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.

The agreement to train
Somali forces was reached during a meeting of European Union defense
ministers in Brussels. The details of the plan remain sketchy, but the
idea is to train the Somalis in Uganda in close collaboration with the
Ugandan government - a main supplier of African Union peacekeeping
troops in Somalia.

At a press conference on Tuesday, EU foreign
policy chief Javier Solana said up to 2,000 Somali security forces had
requested special training to fight against a growing armed insurgency
in Somalia.

"How much we're going to do [train] and how much
it's going to be [must be discussed] with the forces of the African
Union and Uganda in particular is something to be discussed. and the
same thing goes with the duration," he said.

"Then what is the speed of
the distribution of tasks between Ugandan trainers and our trainers.
But it will not be a big operation in the sense it will not require
trainers in the thousands. It will probably be in the hundreds, not the
thousands," he added.

EU officials say they do not believe the Somali
operation will dilute separate efforts to build up a European police
training mission in Afghanistan.

The EU also plans to extend its
anti-piracy mission Operation off Somalia's shores into 2010. Solana
said the 27-member bloc is also considering broadening the operation to
target Somali ports and so-called "mother ships" that provide support
to the pirates.

"Now some ideas have been placed on the table on
making some focalization of the ports in which we know the pirates
operate and something with the mother ships, which are really deep into
the sea, where...some pirates get their help from there," he said.
"This is going to analyzed by the military authorities and by us to see
if something can be done."

Somali pirates have attacked hundreds
of vessels in recent years and they are now expanding their terrain. On
Tuesday, an EU naval force reported that Somali pirates had captured a
chemical tanker with a North Korean crew off the Seychelles Islands.
Separately, Spain announced Somali pirates had release a trawler after
holding a crew of 36 hostage for more than six weeks.