UN calls for more global support for peacekeeping in Somalia

New York, 15 Jan – (ANA) - The United Nations Ha called for international financial and other support to help the UN-backed African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM) regain full control of Mogadishu, the war-torn country’s embattled capital, from Al-Shabaab and other Islamist groups.  

 “The increasing troop strength will provide AMISOM with much needed additional

strength… to gain full control of Mogadishu,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s

Special Representative for Somalia Augustine Mahiga told

the Security Council, referring to the newly authorized increase in troop

strength from 8,000 to 12,000.

 He said the UN Support Office for AMISOM (UNSOA) would ensure that the logistics needed for the additional troops would be made available for its mission in a country that saw its last functioning central government fall in 1991 and has

been torn apart by factional fighting ever since. (ANA)

FA/ANA/15 January 2011-------