The Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS: Ethiopia’s Woyanne foreign minister on Monday called for the U.N. to deploy peacekeepers to neighboring Somalia, where Islamic militants appear to be gaining strength.
Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin’s comments came just days after an attack on an African Union peacekeepers’ base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killed at least 11 civilians.
Mesfin urged the U.N. Security Council to deploy a peacekeeping mission “as soon as possible,” or provide resources to strengthen the current AU mission, which includes about 2,600 peacekeepers.
He praised the AU peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi, who arrived in Somalia last year.
“It is never too late for others to follow their example,” Mesfin told world leaders during his speech to the U.N. General Assembly.
Ethiopia Woyanne, whose troops helped push the Islamists from the Somali capital in December 2006, says that it wants to withdraw.
A U.N. peacekeeping force including American troops met disaster in Somalia in 1993, when militiamen shot down two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters and battled U.S. troops, killing 18. The battle was recounted in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down.”