Tanzanian Association Oslo

Tanzania sends 500

troops to Comoros

THISDAY REPORTER & AGENCIES
Dar es Salaam

TANZANIA is sending 500 troops to the Comoros to support a military assault to regain control of the rebel island of Anjouan, it has been learnt.

Although both Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Membe and Defence Minister Hussein Mwinyi are tight-lipped about the whole military operation, latest media reports from the Comoros islands say the first contingent of Tanzanian troops arrived since Tuesday this week.

’’A first contingent arrived this afternoon, composed of Tanzanians,’’Mohamed Bacar Dossar, director of the Comoros president’s cabinet charged with defence, told Reuters by phone on Tuesday.

He did not give the precise number, but said 500 Tanzanian troops were due to arrive this week.

Reports said more Tanzania troops arrived yesterday following a first batch who arrived a day earlier as part of an African Union force that will go to Anjouan to force out the rebels.

Diplomats said an AU-backed attack was imminent to force a military-backed leader to relinquish control of one of the Comoros islands.

Lt. Col. Ismail Mognidaho told Radio Comore yesterday the army would in the coming hours be sending out warnings to Anjouan islanders to remain indoors when the attack was launched.

The radio station did not give details of the troop numbers, only saying that in total the AU will send about 1,700 troops.

Government spokesman Abdourahim Said Bacar also confirmed the arrival of Tanzanian soldiers as part of an AU force.

The AU has led mediation efforts to end a crisis that emerged when Anjouan’s self-declared leader, Mohamed Bacar, claimed victory in an illegal vote he staged in June last year.

The AU refused to recognise the election on the tropical island, which tried in 1997 to break away from the other islands that form the Indian Ocean archipelago.

The pan-African body which largely opposes any secessionist moves fearing they may lead to conflict has since imposed sanctions on Anjouan’s leadership, including a travel ban.

President Jakaya Kikwete is the current chairman of the AU and had pledged Tanzania’s readiness to provide military support to the Comoros government to flush out the rebels from the island.

Officials from the federal government accuse Bacar, a French-trained former gendarme, of seeking independence and repressing his island’s roughly 300,000 people.

Bacar came to power in a putsch in 2001 and has said he wants more autonomy for Anjouan rather than independence.

Comoros’ top military official said last month Sudan and Senegal were expected to provide a total of 750 troops, while Libya has offered logistical support for the operation.

The United States was last week the latest nation to pledge support for military intervention on Comoros.

With a population of some 700,000 people, it has witnessed at least a dozen coups or attempts since independence from France in 1975.

Lying off Africa’s east coast, the islands which grow ylang-ylang, vanilla and cloves, were first settled by Arab seafarers 1,000 years ago, then became a pirate haven later.