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The UN Security Council has unanimously approved the deployment of an African Union peacekeeping force to Somalia, which could be followed in six months by a UN force.
The British-drafted resolution passed by the 15-member council authorizes the AU force to deploy for six months to help secure and stabilize the lawless east African nation wracked by civil war since 1991.
“Our common objective is to promote reconciliation, peace and security in a country that has known little but conflict and instability for so long,” British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said.
French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said national reconciliation was “at the core of this resolution.”
“It's impossible to impose peace in Somalia, so peace should be coming from the Somalians themselves, so in voting this resolution, the Security Council has assisted the African Union and given a chance to the Somalian people to make the right choice,” he said.
Security Council Resolution 1744 does not indicate how many troops will be deployed, but the AU has already endorsed plans to send 8,000 troops to Somalia.
The resolution “stresses the need for broad-based and representative institutions reached through an all-inclusive political process in Somalia … in order to consolidate stability, peace and reconciliation in the country and ensure that international assistance is as effective as possible.”
The Security Council will “authorize member States of the African Union to establish for a period of six months a mission in Somalia, which shall be authorized to take all necessary measures as appropriate to carry out” its mandate.
The mission will favor dialogue and reconciliation in Somalia, assure freedom of movement, protect federal transitional institutions and help put in place a national security and stabilization plan.
It will also establish and train an all-inclusive Somali security force and assure protection of humanitarian workers in the country.
The resolution asks UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to “send a Technical Assessment Mission to the African Union headquarters and Somalia as soon as possible to report on the political and security situation and the possibility of a UN Peacekeeping Operation following the AU's deployment.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria announced Tuesday it would deploy 850 troops in Somalia by mid-April as part of an AU peacekeeping force. Officials say they also have received troop pledges from Burundi, Malawi and Ghana, but so far the AU has managed to raise only half of the 8,000 troops.
In Somalia Tuesday, fierce artillery battles between security forces and suspected Islamists killed at least 12 people in Mogadishu overnight and forced thousands of residents to flee.
The fighting was the heaviest seen in the coastal city since Ethiopian troops helped Somali government fighters oust the powerful Islamist movement from Mogadishu late last year.
The transitional government, supported by many of the clan warlords whose rival militias carved up Somalia after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, has pledged to restore order in Mogadishu.
But until neighboring Ethiopia intervened, the Islamic Courts Union had controlled the capital since June last year and established its authority over other southern towns and regions.
Ethiopia justified intervention by claiming the Islamists were a direct threat, and was backed by the United States which accuses them of Al-Qaeda links, but the move has prompted mixed feelings among Mogadishu residents.
Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi has repeatedly called for an urgent deployment of AU peacekeepers to Somalia.
