Kenya to train 800 Somalia policemen
Kenya is to train more than 800 police officers to help bring peace in war-torn Somalia.
Two-hundred cadets will undergo three-month training in Manyani, African Union Commission deputy special representative Wafula Wamunyinyi announced on Monday.
Addressing journalists at Serena Hotel in Nairobi, Mr Wamunyinyi who was accompanied by African Union Mission to Somalia police commissioner Hudson Benzu said 600 other cadets are being trained in Djibouti.
Eighty senior officers would be trained in South Africa and Rwanda from January.
Mr Wamunyinyi said all 7,000 police officers in Somalia require training to conform with international standards. The force will late be increased to 10,000.
Mr Wamunyinyi and Mr Benzu said the AU forces now control 50 per cent of Mogadishu.
“Since April, AMISOM troops have been taking ground from armed opposition groups in the city by establishing series of combat outposts in areas previously in the hands of insurgents,” Mr Wamunyinyi said.
Mandate
The AU is also waiting for a new UN mandate to increase AMISOM troops from the current 8,000 to 20,000. Mr Wamunyinyi said 12,000 troops, up from the current 8,000 will be in Mogadishu and remaining ones deployed to other parts of the country.
Mr Wamunyinyi said a number of African countries were willing to deploy troops to Somalia. They include Guinea Bissau which has offered two battalions and Malawi.
The AU has also requested Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Sierra Leone to provide soldiers.
Currently, only Uganda and Burundi have forces in Somalia.
Mr Wamunyinyi, a former member of the Kenya's legislature, hailed Somalia’s Parliament for confirming Mr Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed as Prime Minister. He said this would boost the implementation of transitional clauses.
Somalia has been faced with internal strife since the ouster of dictator Siad Barre in 1991.
