As many as 3,000 African Union peacekeepers have been killed in Somalia in recent years trying to bring stability, the United Nations deputy secretary general, Jan Eliasson, said Thursday.
The 17,700-strong African Union force began deploying to Somalia in 2007 and has helped push out the Shabab, an Islamist militant group, from the capital and other urban centers, though the group can still conduct major attacks.
| We should remember this: while we make fun (correctly) at the U.N.'s many failures, every once in a while it does something more or less properly. That Somalia now has a semi-functional government, some areas of peace, food for most of the people, the al-Shaboobs on the run is something I thought I'd never see. The U.N., along with the AU, Kenya, Ethiopia, Britain and other quiet workers in the U.N. has made this happen. If indeed 3,000 peacekeepers have died, they've died doing something good. |
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