Islamist rebel leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys held a news conference in Mogadishu to denounce the government’s call at the weekend for foreign forces to come to its aid.
The African Union has a 4300-strong force guarding government and other installations in Mogadishu, but has been unable to stem violence and has been targeted by the rebels, Reuter`s reports.
Kenya has said it supports international efforts to get more troops into Somalia, but Aweys thanked Nairobi for declining to send its soldiers across the border.
“If they deal with us well, we will deal with them well as a good neighbour,” he said.
Nairobi expatriate circles have been awash with rumours of planned attacks by Somali militants.
“The fighting will stop when the foreign enemy forces leave the country and Somalis come together for talks,” Aweys added.
“Nothing remains of the puppet Somali government.”
The United Nations and Western powers back President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed’s government, but are increasingly frustrated over how to help him stabilise Somalia.
Ahmed, himself a moderate Islamists, was elected by parliament at a U.N.-sponsored process in Djibouti in January.
“The situation has gone from bad to worse to worst, presenting the entire Horn of Africa with a security crisis of the first order,” U.S. analyst Peter Pham said in a paper.
“If the TFG (government) is ‘fiddling’ while Somalia burns, it is doing so with a full orchestral accompaniment provided by an international community that apparently lacks either the will or the imagination (or both) to do anything else.”
Gus Selassie, an analyst for IHS Global Insight think-tank, was equally pessimistic.
“There appears to be an extreme reluctance on the part of the international community, including neighbouring countries and friendly governments such as Ethiopia, to heed the TFG’s desperate calls,” he wrote in another analysis.
“Both the security and humanitarian situation will have to worsen considerably before anyone will aid the TFG.”
