Somalia's newly elected president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, has asked the African Union (AU) for 20,000 peacekeepers to help secure the country, officials said on Saturday.
| I'm sure they'll cough them right up... |
| ... just as soon as they're done in Darfur. |
The peacekeepers would also help disarm various militias, AU spokesman Adam Thiam said after a meeting between the president and AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare.
The comments came as European Union (EU) foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, held talks in Addis Ababa about helping rebuild the war-ravaged nation. Solana said the EU could help with physical reconstruction and also help to "put the administration into shape", although he declined to say how much it would contribute. Solana, who also met Sudanese-rebel leader John Garang and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi during his two-day trip to Addis Ababa, said the challenges were enormous. "It is not an easy job and that is why they need moral support and recognition," the EU chief said after a meeting with Yusuf. "The country has suffered a lot and it is time to reconstruct and reconcile the country. The stability of this part of the world is fundamental for Africa and in a globalised world, stability everywhere has repercussions for the rest of the world." Solana said that while security in Somalia should remain the task of Africans, the EU was willing to continue support and training in technical areas.
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