Somali president off to Addis Ababa for AU summit

President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia on Saturday flew from Mogadishu’s Aden Adde airport on his way to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for the African Union Heads of state meeting.

The State Minister of the Presidential Affairs Dr. Hassan Moalim told reporters in Mogadishu that President Sheikh Sharif will brief African leaders on the latest developments in Somalia where the fragile government is struggling with Islamist rebel groups who want to topple it.

“The president will ask the AU to complete the already pledged 8,000 peacekeeping forces for the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM)” the State minister told reporters Saturday after the President’s departure.

He said that in the presence of the AU heads of state and world leaders including the UN Secretary General, President Sharif will thank the governments of Uganda and Burundi for their troop contributions to the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia.The AU has currently 5,000 troops from only Uganda and Burundi while 450 others from the neighboring Djibouti are expected to be deployed to the lawless nation in the early weeks of next month, according to sources at the Somali Prime minister’s office who asked not to be named.Somalia has lacked a functioning central government since warlords toppled Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other for power struggle. More than half a million people have been killed in the prolonged armed confrontations and thousand have been displaced since then.