AU supports Somalia plea for foreign troops

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The African Union said Monday it supports Somalia’s plea for neighboring countries to send troops to help fight Islamist insurgents, but there was no indication the reinforcements would be forthcoming.

AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping said in a statement that the Somali government “has the right to seek support from AU member states and the larger international community.”

Somali lawmakers pleaded this weekend for immediate international military intervention from countries including Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti to help quash the insurgency.

But Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said Monday the country would not send troops, choosing instead to help Somalia “in other ways.” He did not elaborate.

There was no immediate word on whether other countries would answer the call. There is already an AU force in Mogadishu, but its mandate is restricted to guarding government officials and installations.

A surge in violence in recent weeks, which diplomats said is a major push by the insurgents to force the government out of its Mogadishu strongholds, has killed nearly 200 civilians.

Nearly 126,000 people have fled their homes since May 7, according to the U.N. refugee agency. The United Nations says an estimated 3.2 million Somalis — almost half the country’s population — need food and other humanitarian aid.

Somalia’s defense minister was supposed to be in Paris to meet with French government ministers Monday but returned to Somalia instead because of “the degradation of the situation on the ground,” according to the French Foreign Ministry.

Two years ago, Ethiopia deployed troops to support Somalia’s fragile, Western-backed government, but they were widely unpopular and were finally withdrawn in January after the election of the new president. Last month Ethiopia sent in troops to the border regions of Somalia.

Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti are members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a regional group that has led past peace talks on Somalia and last month imposed a sea and air blockade to stop supplies reaching the Islamic insurgents in Somalia. It is not clear whether the blockade is effective.

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 when the overthrow of a dictatorship plunged the country into chaos.

AP Writer Tom Odula contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya.