EU to greenlight Somalia security training plan: officials

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union is to endorse next week a plan to train up to 2,000 security personnel from Somalia, as the EU broadens engagement in the crisis-hit African country, officials said Friday.

The plan could see up to 200 EU soldiers train Somali military and police in Uganda, probably for a year, following a request from the interim government in Mogadishu to help build a 6,000-strong security force.

Somalia has been gripped by civil wars and insurgencies and bereft of stable government since the overthrow of President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Some EU nations are cautious about the training committment.

The capital Mogadishu has been ravaged by violence that worsened in May when insurgents stepped up an offensive against the internationally-backed interim government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

The EU decision, expected Tuesday in Brussels at a meeting of foreign, defence and development ministers, would launch official planning for the mission, said the spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

"Once this is approved, which we expect is going to happen during the (EU) council then we will be launching the real planning," the spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, told reporters.

"We will be exploring how we can support, in addition to what we do with piracy on the high seas, the transitional government," she said.

"We think that this is a very good contribution to the global approach that the European Union has in order to tackle the Somali problems and all of its impact," she said.

The training, which may need to be carried out in two or three phases over a year, will involve Somalis numbering "in the low thousands. Initially we might be talking about 1,000 and 2,000," Gallach said.

"Less than 200 trainers" from Europe will be needed, she said.

One EU diplomat said: "Germany and Spain have already publicly announced their intention to contribute to the training teams, while other countries like Finland, Hungary and Poland have expressed interest."

France, already training some 500 Somali troops in Djibouti, also backs the EU plan.

The EU is struggling to build a police training mission of around 400 staff in Afghanistan, but given this work will take place in Uganda away from any danger officials said military trainers could be found by year's end.

Off the coast of Somalia, the EU is running an anti-piracy mission in the waters of the Gulf of Aden, but senior officials say the real way to combat the problem is on Somali territory.

The 27-nation bloc has given substantial political support to the interim government, as well as funding the UN mission there AMISOM, which relies heavily on Ugandan troops.

However some EU nations warned of the need to carefully think the training mission through given the crisis in Somalia, to ensure that the Somali security forces do not become a danger to their people in the future.

"We need to consider a partnership with AMISOM to supervise the soldiers when they return, to ensure they remain loyal," a diplomat from a second EU nation said.

A third said: "If you train people, is there somebody who is going to pay for them afterwards, who's going to equip them? Whose political direction will they be working under?"