Burundi to deploy peacekeepers in Somalia in weeks

Burundi has assured Uganda that it will deploy its promised 1,700-strong peacekeeping troops to Somalia in weeks.

The Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF), the first African Union troops deployed in Somalia early last month, has been the sole peacekeeping force operating in the volatile Somali capital of Mogadishu.

Ugandan Minister of State for Defense Ruth Nankabirwa was quoted by Daily Monitor on Friday saying that the authorities in Bujumbura have given her the reason to believe they would deploy by the end of this month.

"I am corresponding with Burundian authorities who have assured me that they will send their troops this month. They are saying that they have transport problems," Nankabirwa said.

Ugandan troops are the vanguard of a larger African Union force to help the Somali transitional government assert its authority.

The first 1,500 AU troops from Uganda began deploying on March 6 but the AU aims to deploy some 8,000 soldiers with a six-month mandate to help Somali forces take control of the country.

Nigeria has offered 850 troops but has not given details of their deployment schedule.

Malawi and Ghana are also expected to contribute but the AU is still far from reaching the proposed number.

Mogadishu has seen the worst fighting over the last one week. Uganda lost its first peacekeeper last weekend.

Spokesman for Uganda's AU mission in Somalia Captain Paddy Ankunda said that calm had returned to the city after deadly battles. "Mogadishu is now very calm and life is slowly retuning to normal," Ankunda said on the phone.

Dozens of bodies were buried in a mass grave in Somalia's capital after the worst fighting in 15 years killed hundreds of people and sent tens of thousands fleeing the city for safety concerns.

As a fragile ceasefire held in Mogadishu, residents cleared dusty alleyways and backstreets of unclaimed dead killed during four days of heavy fighting, and loaded them onto trucks for burial at the city's largest cemetery.

Source: Xinhua