AU delegation arrives in Somalia
23/01/2008 15:15  - (SA)  

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Mogadishu - An African Union delegation arrived in Mogadishu on Wednesday for talks with the government and the AU peacekeepers stationed in one of the world's most violent and gun-infested countries.

Said Djinnit, head of the AU Peace and Security Council, said the one-day visit was a show of support for the government.

"On the other hand we want to see welfare and the work of our troops, who are doing wonderful job here on our behalf," said Djinnit.

Somalia had not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the poverty-stricken nation of seven million people into chaos.

Its weak transitional government, backed by Ethiopian troops, was struggling to quash an Islamic insurgency that had killed thousands of civilians over the past year.

Uganda and Burundi had sent peacekeepers to Somalia, officially as the vanguard of an 8 000-strong AU peacekeeping force. But no other countries had sent reinforcements so far.

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