African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) peacekeepers parade before a convoy of armored personnel carrier (APC) ferrying Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed (not in picture) during his visit to their operations around Hodon district of the capital Mogadishu on Jan. 24. (Ismail Taxta/Reuters)
Up To 3,000 African Peacekeepers Killed In Somalia Since 2007: U.N. -- Reuters
(Reuters) - As many as 3,000 African Union peacekeepers have been killed in Somalia in recent years in an attempt to end an Islamist insurgency and bring stability to the Horn of Africa nation, a senior U.N. official said on Thursday.
"I want to pay tribute to the countries and to their soldiers who paid such an enormously heavy price," U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told reporters.
"You would be shocked to learn that maybe it is up to 3,000 AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) soldiers that have been killed during these years that AMISOM has been there," he said.
The 17,700 strong African Union force began deploying to Somalia in 2007. It includes troops from Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Djibouti.
Read more ....
My Comment: Battling Somali extremists has been costly, but the ones who have really suffered are the civilians.
No comments:
Post a Comment