8 December 2011
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday praised Kenya’s move to join the African Union force battling Al Qaeda-inspired insurgents in southern Somalia, a spokesman said.
“He welcomed the endorsement by the parliament yesterday of Kenya’s decision to join the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM),” a UN spokesman said in a statement.
The statement was issued after Ban met Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula in Nairobi.
“He also stressed the need for the mission to reach its full mandated capacity,” the statement said.
The AU force – currently comprised of Ugandan and Burundian troops – was first deployed in 2007 and counts 9,700 soldiers, short of its full authorised capacity of 12,000.
Nairobi unilaterally sent troops across its border with southern Somalia on October 14 to contain the threat posed by the Islamist Shebab militia, which was blamed for a spate of kidnapping in Kenya.
Kenya now wants to re-hat its operation in Somalia to include the forces it already has on the ground in AMISOM, whose forces are deployed mainly in the capital Mogadishu.
The Shebab, who have been attempting to topple Somalia’s Western-backed Transitional Federal Government for five years, also face a push by Ethiopian troops coming from the west.
ANP/AFP
AllAfrica – All the Time