The Africa Union (AU) envoy for Somalia has condemned Wednesday's attacks on the pan African body's peacekeeping mission to the Horn of Africa nation.

In a statement issued in Nairobi on Thursday, the Special Representative of the chairperson of the AU Commission for Somalia Nicolas Bwakira said the roadside bomb attacks on AMISOM peacekeepers in Mogadishu will not affect reconciliation efforts in Somalia.

"The AU Special Representative wishes to reaffirm AMISOM's commitment to helping the people of Somalia achieve peace and reconciliation and that the latest attack on peacekeepers will not derail AU role in the country," Bwakira said.

Two roadside bombs exploded between Mogadishu Airport and K4 area on Wednesday in which one peacekeeper died while three others sustained injuries.

The injured peacekeepers have since been taken to Nairobi for medical treatment.

Bwakira noted with regret that the attack on peacekeepers is one of the desperate attempts by the Al-Shabaab insurgent group to claim their relevance within Somalia.

He said Ethiopia's troop withdrawal and the agreement by the new Somali government to implement Sharia Law has undermined Al-Shabaab's image as a group fighting for Somali nationalism under the banner of Islam.

The AU envoy said that despite the Al-Shabaab's resistance, Somalia has made significant progress towards peace and reconciliation.

He said the election of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and his Prime Minister, the expansion of the transitional parliament, improvement in security are just some of the examples of the success of the AMISOM.

Somalia, a nation of about eight million people, has not had a functioning national government since warlords overthrew Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other.

As part of a UN-brokered deal to reconcile moderate Islamists and dissident lawmakers in a unity government, Ethiopian troops withdrew in January.

President Ahmed has the support of several Islamist groups but al-Shabaab has continued to fight the Somali government and the African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu.

Al-Shabaab controls much of southern and central Somalia after a two-year insurgency, and has moved to impose its own strict form of Islamic law in areas under its control.

Last week, Somalia's cabinet voted to make Sharia the basis of Somalia's legal system, in an effort to appease the insurgents. The hardline Islamist guerrillas now control much of southern and central Somalia.

Source: Xinhua