UN deliveries of arms and troops can be made only to designated “battalion hubs”, leaving it to Amisom’s inadequately equipped troop-contributing countries to move materiel and soldiers to the frontlines, Mr Mulongo said.
Logistical problems and military deficiencies are handicapping the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) in its decade-long fight against al-Shabaab, an AU official acknowledged in a wide-ranging and generally pessimistic assessment published Thursday.
The Somalia National Army’s longstanding lack of capacity could “even lead to the mission’s defeat,” warned Mr Simon Mulongo, a Mogadishu-based representative of the African Union.
“Shabaab has much better access to intelligence than Amisom, given its links to the population under its control, its immersion in the local culture and language, and its knowledge of the terrain,” Mr Mulongo acknowledged.
“Al-Shabaab’s formidable intelligence apparatus, the Amniyat, has greatly increased al-Shabaab’s resilience as well as its ability to anticipate and plan.”
His comments were made in an interview with the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, a think tank affiliated with the US Defence Department.
Amisom also lacks the resources needed for its combat mission to succeed, Mr Mulongo said.