NAIROBI,06/18 – The Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) made a desperate plea late on Saturday for the early deployment of a peace support mission in deteriorating Somalia.
The council made the statement after its Saturday night session on the turbulent situation in the country, and repeated its demand to the UN Security Council to lift the arms embargo to help enable the deployment.
The PSC also urged AU partners to provide political, financial and logistical support to help achieve lasting peace and reconciliation in Somalia.
East Africa`s Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a conflict resolution body, said AU troops from Sudan and Uganda were ready to deploy but had been stopped due to a lack of funds and the UN arms embargo.
Fierce opposition to the participation of neighboring countries Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya in the force prompted a bloody brawl in the Somali parliament last year.
Somalia has been in chaos without any functioning central authority after the fall of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 turned the nation into a patchwork of fiefdoms ruled by warlord
Source: Angola Press, June 18, 2006
