Garowe Online (Garowe)
11 October 2008
The African Union dispatched more peacekeepers to Somalia on Saturday, but the peacekeeping force remains understaffed in the face of a violent insurgency.
Major Bahoku Barigye, the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) spokesman, confirmed to reporters that two military planes transporting Burundian soldiers landed safely at Mogadishu' s Aden Adde International Airport.
Local sources reported that at least 400 new soldiers had arrived and that an assortment of equipment was unloaded from the aircraft.
The soldiers will bolster a 2,200-strong AMISOM contingent of Ugandans and Burundians already in Mogadishu, but the force remains short of the 8,000-troop plan the AU endorsed in 2006 to replace Ethiopian forces in Somalia.
Meanwhile, Somali insurgents attacked Ethiopian troops stationed at Stadium Mogadishu in the north of the city two separate times today, witnesses said.
Al Shabaab insurgents claimed responsibility for the violence, with locals saying the attackers used mortars against Ethiopian troops based at the stadium.
"The [Ethiopian] soldiers entered the surrounding neighborhoods and searched for the attackers," witness Mohamed Sheikh told Radio Garowe.
Mogadishu has seen little respite from daily attacks including roadside bombings, assassinations and shootouts since the Islamic Courts movement was overthrown by Ethiopian-backed government troops in late 2006.
A faction of the armed opposition signed on to a peace agreement with President Abdullahi Yusuf's government in June, but that deal has yet to be finalized.
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