The EU must change its strategy in order to prevail the major regional threats facing in Somalia and partcularly Libya. EU ministers have approved plans to establish a naval force to combat people-smugglers operating from Libya.
The EU aim is to launch a Somali maritime operation style next month (The EU’s Operation Atalanta off Somalia is regarded as a model for the new Mediterranean mission), with a headquarters in Rome under an Italian admiral. The Mediterranean mission will be led by Adm Enrico Credendino, an Italian commander who ran the EU’s anti-piracy mission off Somalia, Operation Atalanta. The top British naval commander said, a sweeping review of operations that may lead to a demand for more funding and training Somali security forces in Southern Somalia.
The UK is playing the lead role at the UN Security Council in drafting a resolution that would give the EU a legal basis for using military force against traffickers, militants and supports in Africa.
“The situation in Somalia is serious, but success is achievable and demands a revised implementation strategy, commitment and resolve, and increased unity of effort,” A British maritime security firm said. their findings will be submitted to EU Vice President, who faces a public increasingly restive over a war on terror and Mediterranean crisis that has lasted eight years to stop migrants from Horn of Africa (mainly Eritrea and Somalia).
[quote]The Somali maritime security strategy must change, a British maritime security expert says, while EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called the approval of the plans ”an absolute record”[/quote]
The deteriorating security situation in Southern Somalia was graphically illustrated during the recent UK elections, over which numerous complaints have been filed. Results are still being compiled, but a tally released this week gave the incumbent president Hassan Sheikh Mahamoud 22% of the vote after asking regional leaders and members of Somali Federal Parliamentarians.
“Over the next 2 to 5 weeks among the things he must absolutely plan and a strategy-sis, which can be feasible to sustain security,” a Western military expert who advises the British navy in the region, told the Geeska Afrika Online security reporter in Djibouti.
Another leading counter-terrorism expert said Somalia’s government must fight corruption and deliver services to Somali National army quickly, because Al-Shabaab militants were filling gaps and winning support in southern Somali remaining towns. Al-Shabaab militants are already running security services in parallel to the Somali government, making a real difference to local people, said Mclaren, a senior British Navy adviser in the region.
[quote]“A government that is losing to a counter-intelligence isn’t being outfought, it is being out-governed. And that’s what’s happening in Southern Somalia,” a British navy in the region, told the Geeska Afrika Online security reporter in Djibouti again.[/quote]
The threats facing the UK today are a world away from those that instigated the First World War. A century on, a distinct lack of interstate war, the rise of global networks of terrorists and organised criminals, and the inability of many fragile states to respond to such challenges characterise an increasingly complex security landscape.
And finally, according to Zoë Pelter is the Research Officer of Oxford Research Group’s (ORG), If British approaches are to respond effectively to changing security threats, the scheduled 2015 SDSR process will need to rebalance priorities, with a shift towards conflict prevention and provision of early and non-combat security support in fragile states. Progressive thinking in the current NSS and initiatives, such as the 2011 Building Stability Overseas Strategy, must now translate into a change of priorities in British security, including spending, decisions on deterrence and intervention.
The regional security review is expected to confirm that the protection of the Somali people against the Somali Militants of Al-Shabaab must be the top priority.
GAO
