Somalia: East African Leaders Call for More Troops

Siegfried Modola/IRIN
African Union peacekeepers at a guard post in Mogadishu.
6 July 2010
allAfrica.com

East African leaders have called for 20,000 troops to be deployed across Somalia to support the country's besieged transitional federal government.

In a communique released after a meeting which ended in Addis Ababa on Monday, the leaders also announced they would boost immediately the number of African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Somalia by 2,000, bringing the mission to its planned full strength of 8,100.

They repeated an earlier call on the United Nations Security Council, to convert the AU mission into a UN peacekeeping operation "without delay".

The communique was issued by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which groups East African heads of state and government.

IGAD said its member states were committed to "unswerving support" to the transitional government and branded its opponents as "extremist and terrorist groups".

"The conflict in Somalia," the IGAD leaders said, "is not a conflict among the Somalis but between the people of Somalia and international terrorist groups." The insurgency represented an "escalating danger" not only for Somalia but for the sub-region.

They also supported the supply of resources and equipment to Somali forces from neighbouring countries, and called on AU member countries which had not contributed peacekeepers to give financial and material support.

Their meeting in Addis Ababa was chaired by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, and attended by President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, President Ismael Omar Guelleh of Djibouti, President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, head of the Somali transitional government.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2010 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.