African Union Will Train 800 Policemen to Secure Somali Capital, Mogadishu
The African Union Mission in Somalia said it will train an additional 800 policemen to provide security in the capital, Mogadishu, as AU peacekeepers make gains against militias seeking to topple the government.
“Amisom forces continue to take ground from armed opposition groups in Mogadishu,” Wafula Wamunyinyi, deputy special representative of the chairman of the AU Commission for Somalia, told reporters today in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya. “We intend to ensure that areas falling under Amisom control will be under police, not soldiers, to ensure law and order in Somalia.”
About 600 existing policemen and 80 police officers will receive further training in South Africa and Rwanda “to have a strong and capable police force conforming to international standards,” Amisom police commissioner Benzu Hudson Siazyanana told reporters in the city.
Somalia’s Western-backed government has been battling insurgents, including the al-Shabaab militia that has pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda, since 2007. Somalia hasn’t had a functioning central administration since the ouster of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
The training of the police force comes after Somalia’s parliament yesterday approved the appointment of Mohammed Abdullahi Mohammed as the country’s new prime minister.
To contact the reporter on this story: Johnstone Ole Turana in Nairobi via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.
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