Eu: activation of Op center for Horn of Africa
The European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting on Monday 23rd agreed to activate the Eu Operations center for the Horn of Africa.It is subject to a Eu Council outcome to be adopted as soon as possible, as the European Council said in a press release. The EU is currently conducting two military operations – Eunavfor Atalanta and Eutm Somalia – and has started operational planning to launch a civilian mission to strengthen regional maritime capacities in Somalia and in the wider. Somalia’s al-Shabab insurgents are close to military collapse in the face as a coalition of African forces, fighting on multiple fronts, steadily advances on its southern heartland and the United States steps up drone and naval attacks. But the presence of foreign troops could be a fostering factor for local “talibans” even their military fortunes have dramatically worsened in the last year. It began when an alliance of clans supported by Ethiopia pushed it out of most of the central regions of Hiran and Galgudud. This was followed by the loss of the capital, Mogadishu, in August 2011 – no doubt a big psychological and political blow. Outgunned by the African Union force (Amisom), its ability to wage a conventional war seriously diminished and having suffered huge losses, al-Shabab’s badly mauled combat units pulled out of the battered capital they have struggled to control since early 2007.