PM: Somalia needs peacekeepers
2008-11-29 16:10
Nairobi - Somalia's prime minister says his country needs urgent international help now that Ethiopian forces are set to pull out by the end of the year.
Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein says Somalia needs "either emergency stabilisation forces or international peacekeeping (forces)."
He spoke on Saturday in Nairobi, Kenya.
Ethiopia is pulling its forces from Somalia by year's end, leaving the ravaged capital, Mogadishu, vulnerable to Islamic militants who have seized nearly all of the country.
Ethiopia has sent thousands of troops to Somalia since early 2007, when it launched a US-backed operation that drove the militants out after six months in power. But since then, the Islamists have launched a powerful insurgency.
- AP