Wise move on Somalia

The decision by African Union leaders to adopt an earlier request by the Inter-Governmental Authority of Development to send 2,000 more troops to Somali, is a better option than war.

At the beginning of the summit in Uganda, the general mood was to change the mandate of the AU Mission in Somalia (Amisom) to allow it to wage war against Al-Shabaab militias whose agents had earlier killed 78 Ugandans in suicide bombings.

But in retrospect, this would have been counter-productive. The move would have escalated the conflict in Somalia, because the insurgents would have claimed, with some justification, that it was fighting foreign occupation.

After the attack in Kampala, the obvious reaction by Uganda was to change the mandate from peace-keeping to peace enforcement.

But the use of might has failed in Afghanistan, Iraq and many other places. The mandate of Amisom was to create a conducive environment for political accommodation.

Uganda could be aggrieved, but it has to embrace less provocative options. An escalation of war in Somalia would touch most of the countries in eastern Africa and threaten regional integration.