U.N. Security Council: Conditions not yet Right to Send Peacekeeping Force to Somalia

The U.N. Security Council does not think conditions are yet right to send a peacekeeping force to Somalia but will step up support for African Union (AU) troops there, a senior Western envoy said on Saturday.

The Council, which has long been urged by African states to send blue-helmets to the turbulent Horn of Africa country, promised early this year to decide by June 1 whether to do so. But ahead of an annual meeting between the Council and the AU, Britain's U.N. Ambassador John Sawers said: "We are still taking a staged approach towards U.N. peacekeeping. The conditions on the ground don't exist at the moment." Battles between al Shabaab militants and pro-government fighters have killed at least 139 people and sent some 27,000 fleeing the Somali capital Mogadishu in the past week or so.

Some Western intelligence agencies fear Somalia, with its weak central government struggling against the Islamist insurgents, could become a beach-head in Africa for al Qaeda-style militants.

The U.N. special envoy to Somalia said on Friday up to 300 foreign fighters had joined the insurgents, and the Security Council voiced concern over reports that Eritrea has been arming the militants. Eritrea called this 'totally false'.

Source:Ecoterra, May 17, 2009

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