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UNITED NATIONS, February
26, 2009 — The United Nations Security Council Wednesday condemned the
latest violence in Somalia including a weekend suicide attack that
killed 11 African peacekeepers, Japan's UN envoy said.
"The members of the Security Council condemn in the strongest terms" the
attacks and "reiterate their condemnation of all acts of violence and
incitement to violence against AMISOM," the African Union Mission in
Somalia, said Ambassador Yukio Takasu of Japan, which holds the
council's rotating presidency.
Eleven Burundian soldiers were killed and 15 wounded in the attack on
their camp in Mogadishu, according to a statement Monday by the
Burundian army in Bujumbura.
The attack was the deadliest so far against AMISOM, and raised to 20 the
number of African Union soldiers killed since the force's deployment in
March 2007, according to a count by AFP.
The 15 members "reiterate their commitment to support a strengthened
AMISOM, which has a vital role to play in helping to bring peace and
security to Somalia," he said.
They "welcome the ongoing political process in Somalia that led to the
expansion of Parliament and the election of a new president," the
moderate Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, said Takasu.
The members "call on all Somalis to reject violence and extremism, to
embrace peaceful means of resolving conflicts, and to support the
government towards this goal".
AMISOM, which consists of 3,400 troops from Uganda and Burundi, is
underfunded, poorly equipped and less than half the size of the
8,000-member force initially contemplated for the mission.
Since the departure of Ethiopian troops from Somalia last month, it is
the only foreign force in Mogadishu, a city ravaged by warfare and
violence.
Islamist forces opposed to UN-sponsored reconciliation bids in Somalia
have launched several deadly attacks against the government and African
Union forces in recent days.
SOURCE: AFP, Thursday, February 26, 2009
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