Remember That Place Called Somalia

 

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | AU backs 8,000 troops for Somalia
Read the entire article at:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5343240.stm

 

 

Summary:

AU backs 8,000 troops for Somalia The African Union has approved plans to send 8,000 peacekeepers to Somalia to support the interim government.

A meeting at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, agreed that the first soldiers should be in place by the end of the month.

The approval for the force by the African Union Peace and Security Council also appears to fly in the face of a shaky agreement between Somalia's interim government and the Islamic courts not to allow any foreign intervention.

Somalia has been without any effective government for the past 15 years divided into fiefdoms controlled by rival warlords.

The interim government has the support of the UN, but it controls only a small area of the country around its base in Baidoa, about 250km from the capital and a powerful local warlord has ordered them to leave.

The Islamists accuse the government of bolstering its defences with troops from Ethiopia, while they in turn have been accused of using military backing from Eritrea.

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