AU urges UN to take over Somalia
2008-07-24 08:24
New York - The African Union said on Wednesday it was incapable of stabilising the situation in Somalia and urged the United Nations take over peacekeeping operations in the lawless Horn of Africa country.
"Despite all sacrifices of its leaders and elements, AMISOM is unable to fulfil its mandate because its strength is obviously grossly incommensurate to the scope of real challenges on the ground," AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Ramtane Lamamra said.
"The mission faces severe lack of funding and logistic support," he said.
AMISOM, the AU peacekeeping force in Somalia, had authorised the deployment of 8 000 troops but had only 2 600 on the ground at present, he said.
The sole suppliers of AMISOM peacekeepers were Uganda and Burundi, though Nigeria and others had offered troops.
UN urged to deploy force
Lamamra said it was "crucial to beef up the mission to reach its authorised strength," adding that the AU had launched a drive to get more countries to contribute troops to AMISOM.
Lamamra and others urged the council to authorise the UN to take over from the AU the task of stabilising Somalia.
"We are asking the Security Council to deploy a UN force, a force funded by the UN, a force under a UN mandate," the Foreign Minister of Somalia's interim government, Ali Ahmed Jama, said.
The world body's special envoy for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, called for a robust UN stabilisation force, while cautioning that "troops will not be a panacea to bring total peace".
While the 15 Security Council members all agreed that the situation was dire, most had been reluctant to send UN peacekeepers to Somalia, where warlords, Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed Somali government forces were battling.
Recently militants had been targeting humanitarian aid workers in Somalia for assassination, council diplomats said.
Humanitarian situations 'deteriorating'
Talk of UN intervention was still coloured by memories of a battle in 1993 in which 18 United States troops and hundreds of Somali militiamen died. The incident inspired a Hollywood movie, Black Hawk Down and marked the beginning of the end for a US-UN peacekeeping force.
In May, the council passed a resolution that asked UN chief Ban Ki-moon to explore possible peacekeeping scenarios but said discussion of a UN peacekeeping mission would depend on political and security improvements.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said he hoped the possible scenarios would be ready by mid-August, adding that Somalia's humanitarian and security situations were deteriorating.
Somalia's interim government and some members of the exiled opposition signed a deal in Djibouti last month calling for deployment of UN troops and a ceasefire after a month.
Hardline Islamist Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said he had taken over the exiled opposition in Eritrea, causing some Security Council diplomats to worry whether the Djibouti deal could unravel.