Mogadishu, Somalia – Three battalions of peacekeepers from Uganda and Nigeria will be airlifted as soon as possible into Somalia amid rising violence that threatens the government’s grip on power, an African Union official said Wednesday.
Somalia’s Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi began imposing martial law in areas his government controls, beginning with a curfew Tuesday night in the southern town of Baidoa.
Gedi warned remnants of an ousted Islamic movement have returned to towns and cities and were planning to try to further destabilize the lawless country.
Since last month, when Somali government troops with crucial support from Ethiopian soldiers, tanks and war planes ousted the Council of Islamic Courts, factional violence has again become a feature of life in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
Ethiopia says it does not have the resources to stay as a peacekeeping force and already has begun withdrawing, presenting the possibility of a dangerous power vacuum.
In neighboring Ethiopia, a senior African Union official said Wednesday that three battalions of peacekeepers from Uganda and Nigeria were ready to be deployed in Somalia and will be airlifted in as soon as possible.
The African Union was pressing ahead with its peacekeeping mission to Somalia despite securing only half the 8,000 troops needed at a key summit of African leaders that ended Tuesday.
An important consideration for the African Union peacekeeping mission is ensuring the majority of troops are Muslim, given that most Somalis are Muslim. The troops will have a narrow mandate: protecting the transitional government.
On Tuesday, extremists in Somalia said they would try to kill any peacekeepers. In a videotape posted on the official website of the Islamic movement, a hooded gunman read a statement saying that any African peacekeepers would be seen as invaders.
The United States has accused Somalia’s Council of Islamic Courts of sheltering suspects in the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
