[ 2011-06-03 ]

Ugandan troops make up the majority of African Union peacekeepers fighting Islamist militants in Somalia

Somalia's interim government 'needs more time' - Uganda
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said
Somalia's transitional government should be given
another year to consolidate gains against
militants.

Otherwise, Uganda will withdraw its troops helping
the government fight Islamist al-Shabab militants,
he said.

The current mandate for the UN-backed government
is due to expire on 20 August and the UN is
calling for elections to be held quickly.

Mr Museveni said polls this year would allow the
militants to reorganise.

Uganda currently contributes about 5,000 troops to
an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, called
Amisom, in Somalia. Burundi supplies the rest of
the force.

"It seems to us that the win-win situation for all
parties seems to be an extension of the
Transitional Federal Institutions for a period not
exceeding one year," Mr Museveni told an
international meeting on Somalia held in Uganda's
capital, Kampala.

Elections held too soon, he warned, would "allow
the extremists time to reorganise and cause
problems and undermine the battlefield gains so
far obtained".

He added: "If the current system collapses, or if
it is seriously undermined, we can have no
justification to stay in that situation - we will
leave Somalia."

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmad told the
International Contact Group on Somalia that the
country was too unstable for a vote. He also
called for the transitional government's tenure to
be extended.

The AU force in Somalia deployed to Mogadishu in
2007 to back the weak interim government.

Somalia has been racked by constant war for more
than 20 years. Its last functioning national
government was toppled in 1991.

Source - BBC

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