Sunday, December 23, 2007
(Adds Burundian peacekeepers arrive)
By Aweys Yusuf and Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU, Dec 23 (Reuters) - A first contingent of 100 peacekeepers from Burundi deployed in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday, hours after fighting between Islamist rebels and government forces killed at least four people.
The arrival of the Burundian soldiers in the rubble-strewn city marked the first phase of long-delayed support for 1,600 Ugandan troops who began work in March as the vanguard of a planned 8,000-strong African Union (AU) mission.
"One hundred peacekeepers from Burundi have just landed here," Captain Paddy Ankunda, the AU force spokesman, told Reuters at Mogadishu's heavily guarded international airport.
Burundi's government had pledged to send about 1,700 troops to Somalia's capital. They were meant to arrive in July, but their deployment was repeatedly delayed. It was not immediately clear when the rest of the Burundian contingent would arrive.
Without support, the Ugandans have been restricted to guarding Mogadishu's sea and air ports and presidential palace, as well as providing security for top government officials.
 |
|
Burundi deployed in Somali | Meanwhile, fierce battles broke out overnight in northern neighbourhoods of the city as Islamist-led insurgents attacked government security forces and their Ethiopian allies.
Residents cowered behind closed doors as both sides exchanged barrages of artillery rounds and machinegun fire.
"A mortar shell landed at a home in Yaqshid, killing two people. Another resident was killed by crossfire," one local, Mohamed Afrah, told Reuters by telephone. Several other mortar bombs landed nearby, he said, but only damaged empty houses.
A doctor at Mogadishu's main Madina hospital said two victims of the overnight fighting had been admitted there.
"One of them, a 14-year-old boy, died a few minutes ago," said Dahir Dheere. "The other one is in a serious condition."
On Saturday, the AU described the conflict in Somalia as one of the most serious challenges for peace and security on the continent. The United Nations says the country is suffering Africa's worst humanitarian crisis.
Somalia has been mired in lawlessness since warlords ousted military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
There have been 14 attempts to restore effective central rule since then, but the latest has been weakened by an Islamist-led insurgency against Ethiopian-backed government forces and persistent political infighting. (Editing by Daniel Wallis and Mary Gabriel).
Source: Reuters, December 23, 2007
|
|
|
INTERNET CAFE
CALLING CARDS SIM CARDS SCANNING COLOUR PRINTING
PASSPORT PHOTOS
PHOTOCOPYING
DIGITAL PRINTING
MONEY TRANSFER
WESTERN UNION
|
|
MANCHESTER
|
MANCHESTER
| United Kingdom |
|
|
|
Somali & Ethiopian Food
-Cunto macaan
-Nadaafad sare
-Shaqaale carbisan
-Qabo,Quraac iyo Casho
|
|
Toronto
|
Ontario
| Canada |
|
|
|
More comments - Add comments
I am feeling mad and Somalis have to know what I know Ethiopia go home and Uganda armies you have been used I am a Somali and not happy..
|
|
If you can't provide solution to your own mess someone will have the mandate to risk their own "kids" to protect and save what's left of your own destructive un-immaginable deadly and barbaric life-style means. The world has changed and any peace keeping mission is a good start!
|
|
Burundi the might be hungry and stubborn stay away from their girls you will not be forgiven on this one it is not the deal.
|
|
Where does hamdi get her news i would the BBC the SOmali section
|
|
BAGHDAD BOB,
Somali land is at war, have you not heard, for the last
three days they are at war with each other, no one is
reporting, except you have to at the somali chat rooms
and follow the websites that are reporting, it is
very hush hush lol, only in somalia can you see
a war that is hush hush. Somaliland is no position
to keep a peace, it cannot even keep peace within
its colonial border which it claims
|
|
 |
