African Union to deploy peacekeepers

The African Union (AU) is to deploy a contingent of Ugandan peacekeepers to war-ravaged Somalia, with the first troops expected to arrive by the end of the month, officials said on Thursday.

The AU said the decision was taken at the meeting of its Peace and Security Council (PSC) in Addis Ababa, which voted to send in an AU peacekeeping mission, which voted to send in an AU peacekeeping mission.

The PSC also agreed to send an advance mission to Nairobi to meet with the transitional government to establish the exact requirements and timetable ahead of full deployment.

"The Peace and Security Council has authorised the AU to deploy the advance mission to Nairobi to draw up plans for the AU Peace Support Mission in Somalia," Assane Ba from the AU’s conflict centre, said.

"The transitional government wants to move into Mogadishu by the end of January," he added. "If they keep their schedule, tentatively, they say by the 21st January they want to go to Mogadishu.

"When they go in we will have the mission, or the first part of the mission, to protect them," Ba said. "We will deploy the first part of the mission quickly because we already have 2,000 Ugandans. Uganda says they can deploy as soon as possible to protect the government."

The Ugandan minister of State for Defence, Ruth Nankabirwa Sentamu, told IRIN the number of troops her country could offer would be smaller. "Our president suggested 200 soldiers," she said on Thursday.

The AU said its mission to Nairobi would also liase with IGAD [Intergovernmental Authority on Development] and other parties, and undertake all necessary preparatory steps for the deployment "as early as possible".

The interim Somali government is currently based in Nairobi. It says security in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, is still fragile.

The new president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, had asked the AU in October for 20,000 peacekeepers to help secure the country and help train a 30,000-strong Somali army within a year.

Ba said the total number of troops needed and the exact cost of the peacekeeping mission to Somalia had not been decided, although it was hoped the mission would last a year.

The peacekeepers would help disarmament of the 55,000-armed militias that are roaming the country, who are armed with more than two million small arms.

In a statement released after the PSC meeting, the AU also called on its member states to help provide support to the new transitional government "in its efforts to establish the Police Force and Army for Somalia".

It urged the international community to "provide the necessary support to ensure the effective implementation of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, as well as post-conflict reconstruction in Somalia".