UN Agrees To Boost AU Troops In Somalia

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously agreed to significantly increase the number of African Union (AU) troops in Somalia.

The 15-national council passed a resolution prepared by Britain to give the African force a touger mandate to attack al Shabab Islamist militants and substantially increased international funding for military action.

The number of AU troops can now be increased to more than 17,700, having previously had an upper limit of 12,000.

Somalia has had no effective government for more than two decades and in recent years Shabab rebels, which are linked to al Qaeda, and other militant groups tightened their grip on large parts of the country.

It comes after Sky's defence and security editor Sam Kiley reported Ethiopian troops had captured the strategically important central Somali town of Baidoa after two days of fighting in which at least 22 Shabab fighters were killed, according to military sources in Mogadishu.

Kiley, who is in Mogadishu, said: "The Ethiopians are allied with the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), but not under the command of AU troops who recently drove the radical Islamist movement out of the capital.

"The loss of Baidoa, which was at the centre of last year's famine caused by insecurity, is a major blow to the Shabab who have been losing ground to foreign forces and the TFG after being forced to fight on three fronts."

The AU force - Amisom - is paid for by the UN and has been helping the TFG to fight back over the past year.

Under the resolution, Kenyan troops already in Somalia will come under Amisom command. Ethiopian troops will remain separate from the AU troops.

Amisom was "authorised to take all necessary measures" with Somali security forces "to reduce the threat posed by Shabab and other armed opposition groups in order to establish conditions for effective and legitimate governance across Somalia", said the resolution.

Diplomats said the annual cost of Amisom's logistics would increase from about $250m (£160m) a year to about $550m (£350m).

The council adopted the resolution on the eve of a conference on Somalia in London, where senior representatives from more than 40 governments and international organisations were to discuss a new international approach to the country's problems.