Uganda is ready to send an additional 2,000 peacekeeping troops to Somalia despite threats from hardline Somali Islamists of more attacks if peacekeepers are not withdrawn, an army spokesman said today.
Two coordinated explosions in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Sunday killed 73 people watching the soccer World Cup final on television.
"If we're called on to contribute a stronger force in Somalia, we're ready to send an extra 2,000," spokesman Felix Kulayigye told Reuters by telephone.
The al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the Kampala attacks, said it was avenging the killing of civilians by African Union peacekeepers. Ugandan forces form the backbone of the 6,100-strong contingent in Somalia.
Regional allies have promised to send an extra 2,000 soldiers to Somalia by mid-August.
Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni wants new rules of engagement that would allow the troops to take on the rebels in order to prevent further attacks across the region.
"We're in Somalia under the auspices of the AU to help our brothers there and al Shabaab won't intimidate us or scare us out of the country," Mr Kulayigye said.
Burundi also has troops in Mogadishu, protecting the presidential palace and guarding the airport and port from insurgents.
It has said it will not bow to pressure from al Shabaab and will keep its 2,500 peacekeepers in place.
Somalia has had no effective central authority since 1991, and the Transitional Federal Government controls only a small section of the capital.
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed today appealed once more for more help for Somalia, but said the country should look inside for a solution to insurgency by groups such as al Shabaab.
"I appeal to all Somali people to face this new terrible matter broadly. Change of a community can't come from outside if the community itself doesn't make a change, so let us all stand to make a real change," he told a Mogadishu news conference.
Reuters