Group condemns Sierra Leone troop deployment to Somalia

A local organisation, the Pan-African Community Movement (PACM), has condemned the ongoing deployment of a battalion of Sierra Leonean soldiers to Somalia calling it “an imperialist sponsored project”. In a press statement, PACM says the “mission of the Sierra Leone soldiers most of whom are poorly paid in normal circumstances, is to fight the Islamist group – Al-shabaab” which they say “in reality…is an imperialist sponsored project in which the Sierra Leonean army will be doing the biding of America’s proxy-war in Africa as mercenaries.” The release says the cost of the mission’s logistics and salaries for the soldiers will be paid for by the Americans referring to it as “a case of Africans paid to kill other Africans.” PACM had issued an earlier statement last year after the deployment was first announced criticising the move. “We reaffirm our view that war cannot bring peace and that the deployment of Sierra Leonean soldiers in Somalia is wrong.” They say the problem in the war-torn country cannot be solved through military action saying the troop deployment could be seen by Somalis as Sierra Leone colluding as “part of the greater conspiracy, sponsored by western imperialist forces to dominate and further the long suffering of the people of Somalia and deepen the conflict” and could “also endanger Sierra Leonean citizens”. The movement says they are not opposed to Sierra Leonean soldiers taking part in other African problems, but that in this case, it is driven by outside forces. They also condemn the Al-Shabaab’s “use of terrorist tactics of killing innocent people in their so-called war to institute sharia law in Somalia” and urge “a peaceful resolution to the Somalia conflict as well as the conflicts in Mali and Nigeria”. The Pan-Afrikan Community Movement (PACM) is a grassroots community-based movement of youths, students and women in Sierra Leone. The government of Sierra Leone maintains the deployment is a part of the country’s contribution to the restoration of peace in another country like was done in Sierra Leone when many countries sent troops as part of the UN peacekeeping mission here and before it, the West African force, ECOMOG.