An emergency summit is being held this week in Ethiopia between leaders of the nations in the region surrounding Somalia. The meeting, referred to as the Inter-Government Authority on Development (IGAD), is being held in response to the reports that members of the Somali Transitional Federal Government are defecting to join al-Shabab. A diplomat is quoted as saying that this defection is due to the failure of the Transitional government, "There is no proper military command structure and as a result, some of the soldiers either opt to join al Shabaab or sell off their guns and desert." Uganda has a major stake in any crisis's that continue to occur in Somalia due to the large number of peacekeeping troops that Uganda provides. While this defection issue is just another incident in a series of problems in Somalia, this week the United States has called on other nations to provide funding to Somalia to prevent the country from "from slipping into a terrorism hotbed."
Mary Naset
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