African Union Troops Expand Presence in Mogadishu

African Union peacekeepers aim to assert control over half of the embattled Somali capital Mogadishu by month-end and fan out to the countryside once additional troops arrive, the deputy head of the mission said.

The AU force of about 8,000 mainly Ugandan and Burundian soldiers is now in charge of more than 40 percent of the city, Wafula Wamunyinyi, deputy special representative of the chairman of the AU Commission for Somalia, told reporters today in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya.