"According to the documents leaked by WikiLeaks, Somalia will be split into "four regions”—two that will belong to Ethiopia, two that will belong to Kenya. The division will make both countries extend their territories by roughly 300,000sq km and additional populations of about five million.
Ethiopia and Kenya have mobilized thousands of their troops into Somalia as part of the U.N.-mandated African Union forces AMISOM to support the Somali government in its fight against the armed group, al-Shabab.However, WikiLeaks has it that the two countries pursue a much more ambitious agenda than it is officially stated. It further suggest that Kenya is said to have trained young men from the areas around Kismayo to help them win allies. The document states that Italy stands with Kenya and Ethiopia on this.
According to the cables, the Saudi Ambassador in Djibouti didn’t hide his annoyance regarding what was going on between the Prime Minister Abdi-Weli Muhammed and the regional President Abdul-Rahman Muhammed Faroole and Ambassador Augustine Mahiga, the UN’s man in Somalia. The Ambassador described Augustine as being the merchant of the Somali conflict, who was aiming to institute power-sharing in the incoming government by dissolving the current parliament and calling for a re-election of 225 members who would be chosen (so as) to ensure that the AbdiWeli is elected President and Faroole as a Prime Minister, says the undated memo.
Neither Ethiopia nor Kenya have reacted to the Wikileaks cable on the alleged project to swallow Somalia.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on one another, carving much of the country into armed camps ruled by violence and clan law. The government, which includes warlords linked to the violence of the past, was established with the support of the United Nations to help Somalia emerge from anarchy. But the body wields no real power and it has no military.
WikiLeaks’ memo provides a glimpse at how far Saudi Arabia will go to ensure Somalia adheres to positions in line with the Kingdom. A Somalia delegate is scolded for not voting on a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Syria like Saudi Arabia had wanted. The 61,000 Saudi cables, the first tranche of 500,000 promised by Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, also show the Saudi’s sharp focus on its strategic rival Iran and the revolution in Egypt, and support for allies and clients in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East."
