Malawi Set To Deploy Troops To Somalia

[Taako Man]

Malawi Set To Deploy Troops To Somalia - Defense Min

 

 

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP)--Malawi plans to deploy troops to Somalia as part of a proposed African Union peacekeeping mission, the defense minister said Monday.

 

Davies Katsonga said the southern African country was still deciding whether to send a whole battalion or half a battalion, depending on other countries' contributions to the initiative.

 

Katsonga said the situation in Somalia was a matter of urgency, since Ethiopian troops were moving out within weeks.

 

"They will leave a vacuum. That is why the African Union wants us to move in as soon as possible," he said.

 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, whose country's troops routed militia forces loyal to the fundamentalist Islamic Courts, is anxious to withdraw his forces and has urged other countries to contribute to an AU peacekeeping mission.

 

On Friday the AU Peace and Security Council approved a plan to send 8,000 African peacekeepers to Somalia for a six-month mission that would eventually be taken over by the U.N.

 

Katsonga said the U.N. would meet the logistical costs of the deployment.

 

Malawi has peacekeeping troops in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, Congo and Kosovo.

[General Duke]

Great news, the AU is giving the Somali people real suppport.

[Sky]

General Duke and Taako Man,

 

There will be a time when Somalia itself will be capable of sending its troops as peacekeeping forces to other troubled African nations to do our duties as Africans. Hopefully we will reach that advanced stage sooner rather than later I'A.

[Taako Man]

^ Inshallah we will be the peacekeepers of tommorow instead of the precarious sitaution we in today when we need others to help us keep the peace.

[General Duke]

Indeed you have Angola and Mozambique sending troops now and we know how bloody those nations history was. You have South Africa being run by the ANC. Somalia is getting better.