AU official calls for urgent deployment of peacekeepers in Somalia

AU official calls for urgent deployment of peacekeepers in Somalia

By Ronald Ssekandi and Tian Ye 
Thursday, December 03, 2009

KAMPALA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) representative in Somalia on Wednesday called for an urgent deployment of peacekeepers in the country to prevent the possible relocation of al Qaida following planned attacks on their bases in Afghanistan.

Wafula Wamunyinyi, AU Deputy Special Representative for Somalia told Xinhua in an interview that as the United States and Britain deploy more troops to Afghanistan, the al Qaida terrorist network is most likely to relocate to volatile Somalia where it has already had links with the al Shabaab, a militia group fighting the government.

"This (troop deployment in Afghanistan) obviously is going to push al Qaida. if they find an escape route, the only safe place is Somalia," he said.

"The Africans who feel they are secure or they can not be affected by this threat will feel it when they get attacked. But we don't want to wait until they are attacked," he added.

Wamunyinyi was speaking on the sidelines of the opening of a two-day meeting of current and potential troop contributing countries to the African Union Mission in Somalia.

He said African countries must deploy peacekeepers in Somalia to avoid such a scenario, which is likely to destabilize the region and the continent.

Uganda and Burundi are the only countries that have deployed troops in the volatile country, which according to experts, now needs up to 27,000 troops instead of the previously required 8,000.Only about 4,300 troops have so far been deployed.

Wamunyinyi, quoting intelligence, said the al Shabaab is recruiting more Africans into their outfit with half of their recruits coming from Kenya and others from Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi.

About 500 of the recruits come from outside Africa, particularly from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States, Bangladesh and many other countries, he said.

The meeting which was aimed at building confidence among current and potential troop contributing countries drew 47 participants from Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, and Somalia. 

Source: Xinhua