Quotable Quotes:

I am optimistic that these numbers will be raised now – especially now – because these people have provoked the world more than before. And I can assure you they have invited a lot of problems for themselves,” he told journalists in Uganda

Yoweri Museveni on his decision to send up to 20,000 troops to Somalia to “eliminate” the hardline Islamist group, Al Shabaab

The president did not answer critical questions like: What are our objectives in Somalia? What are the key success indicators? What is the timeframe of our intervention? What is our exit strategy? Without answers to these questions, I am inclined to believe that we have deployed blindly into a troubled country, a factor that is likely to vitiate against success.

TMC News on Museveni’s intervention in Somalia

African leaders are daydreaming. You can’t solve Somalia’s problems by sending in more troops. With its devastating effects, the culture of using military might has been tried but failed. Now it is the time to nurture the culture of dialogue.

Zakaria Mohamud Haji Abdi, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, on the solution to Somalia’s crisis.

Military approaches have only helped to radicalize more youths and exacerbate fundamentalism in Somalia. The international community needs to realize that its current and previous policies on Somalia have largely strengthened religious extremism and Somalis’ distrust of the West.

Kisiangani Emmanuel, a researcher at the South Africa-based Institute for Global Dialogue, said the international community needs to signal a willingness to accept any government that is acceptable to Somalis — including insurgents — regardless of the affiliations of its leaders.