Uganda's Defense Minister and top army official Minister of Defense Crispus Kiyonga and the Chief of Defense Forces Aronda Nyakairima are in Ethiopia preparing for the deployment of Ugandan peacekeepers in volatile Somalia.

Gen. Nyakairima was quoted by the Daily Monitor on Thursday saying that the meetings in Addis Ababa were in preparation for Uganda People's Defense Forces (UPDF) mission likely to kick off next week.

"We are still working out details of the mission with other troop contributing countries," he said. "We have not decided on the deployment date but we hope from these meetings everything will be clear."

Kiyonga and Gen. Nyakairima are expected to return to Kampala at the weekend, the time an advance team of UPDF officers will be returning from Somalia from a pre-deployment assessment.

The team of over 50 had been in Somalia for a fortnight laying ground ahead of the deployment of a battalion of 1,400 Ugandan troops.

Besides Uganda, Nigeria, Burundi, Malawi and Ghana have also offered to send soldiers. But only about 4,000 of the 8,000 troops needed have so far been pledged.

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the African Union to send peacekeeping forces to Somalia.

The 15-member Security Council adopted Resolution 1744 activating the mission known as AMISOM that will assist in achieving national reconciliation in Somalia, a country which without a functioning government since warlords toppled former president Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Somali forces backed by Ethiopia's military routed Islamist troops late last year. But almost daily attacks, blamed on ousted Islamist hard-liners, have put pressure on the interim government, which has been struggling to restore stability in the country.

Source: Xinhua