Burundi to Deploy 850 Troops to Support US-backed Somalia Government

Somali guerrillas are continuing the fight to overthrow the US-backed Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu. Many refugees are leaving for Yemen.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

BUJUMBURA August 1 Sapa-AFP

BURUNDI SENDS TROOP REINFORCEMENTS TO SOMALIA

Burundi has deployed a third battalion of 850 soldiers to
Mogadishu to reinforce the African Union peacekeeping mission in
the Somali capital, Burundi's army said Saturday.

With the new troops, more than 5,000 soldiers from Burundi and
Uganda are now taking part in the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM),
which began in March 2007 and has cost the lives of 17 Burundian
soldiers.

"Burundi had already sent two battalions, or 1,700 soldiers, to
Somalia as part of AMISOM," Burundian General Lazare Nduwayo told AFP.

"It just finished overnight the deployment of a third battalion
of 850 men as part of this peacekeeping mission," the army
spokesman said.

The deployment took place over four days with evening flights
taking the forces from Burundi's capital Bujumbura to Mogadishu, he
said.

"It is completely normal that we acted in secrecy without
notifying the press... mainly for security reasons," Nduwayo said.

AMISOM is the only foreign force in Somalia, which has been
mired in civil war since 1991. Islamist insurgents launched an
offensive in May to topple a transitional government, which is
backed by the international community.

In February, 11 Burundian soldiers were killed and 15 others
wounded in a suicide bombing against their camp in Mogadishu, in
the deadliest single attack against the force in the war-riven
Somali capital.

"Burundi has decided to honour its decision to send peacekeepers
to Somalia even though we do not know when the other countries will
send their promised contingents," Nduwayo said. "But we hope that
this will happen soon."

Nigeria, Malawi and Sierra Leone are among possible contributors
to AMISOM, which was originally supposed to include 8,000 soldiers.

But the AU has so far failed to convince other conuntries to
deploy troops to Somalia, where past UN and US missions ended in
fiascos in the 1990s.

Ethiopia also deployed troops to Somalia in late 2006 and
withdrew them in 2009.

The AU extended AMISOM's mission by seven months in June. The
hardline Shebab Islamist fighters warned that the measure would
only worsen the violence in Somalia.