FOLLOW-UP ON AFRICAN UNION SOMALIA FORCE

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRETORIA 002691 DEPT FOR AF/S E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/10/2018 TAGS: KPKO PREL SO AU ZU SF SUBJECT: FOLLOW-UP ON AFRICAN UNION SOMALIA FORCE GENERATION TEAM VISIT REF: STATE 126421 Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Cassandra B. Carraway. Reaso ns 1.5 (b) and (d). ¶1. (SBU) On December 9, POLOFF met with Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Chief Director of East Africa division Graham Maitland to discuss the USG's willingness to provide logistical, training and equipment support to military units that are committed by South Africa to deploy to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) (reftel). ¶2. (C) Maitland said South Africa would not send troops to Somalia at this stage, but would consider "longer-term involvement in terms of capacity building" once a unity government was in place. He said he met with the African Union (AU) special envoy for Somalia a few months ago and told him the same. The South African Government (SAG) is still considering making a financial contribution, according to Maitland. ¶3. (C) Maitland said South Africa could not provide peacekeeping troops to AMISOM as its armed forces were overextended with troop contributions of close to 3,000 total in Burundi, Congo and Darfur. While that is the official line, and true, Maitland spoke candidly about South Africa's unofficial reasons for not sending troops to AMISOM. He said there was no clear objective for AMISOM (counterterrorism or separating forces, for example) as there were competing strategies and priorities at play. He said peacekeeping could not be the objective as there was no peace to keep. He added, "You can't fight piracy and Islamists at the same time." Maitland said the DFA warned the Ethiopians two years ago not to send peacekeepers to Somalia. He said, "The whole policy on Somalia is an abject failure." He thought it would take 60,000-70,000 troops to bring peace to Somalia. ¶4. (C) Maitland said the SAG would continue to support AU and UN efforts in Somalia, but would not insert itself as a major player. He said, "We can't be everywhere for everybody." BOST