Nairobi,(Sunatimes) The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) on Wednesday urged the United Nations to take over the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMIOSM), which is helping the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia since 2007 to get peace and stability.

The call was made at the conclusion of the 36th Extra-Ordinary Meeting of the IGAD Council of Ministers which ended on Tuesday evening in Addis Ababa.

A communiqué issued Wednesday has also called upon the UN and the international community at large to enhance assistance to AMISOM.

"The Council reiterates its call to the UN to assume its responsibility by deploying UN peace keeping mission in Somalia to take over from AMISOM," said IGAD.

The Council heard a report presented by Kipruto arap Kirwa, the IGAD facilitator for the Somalia Peace and National Reconciliation.

It also noted that the effort to stabilize the current situation in Somalia requires an input.

Accordingly, it recommended to the IGAD assembly of heads of state and government to convene an urgent extra-ordinary summit at the earliest opportunity to review the serious political and security developments in Somalia and the region with the objective of re-engineering the whole process.

Currently, around 5,000 Ugandan and Burundi peacekeeping forces are in Somalia under AMIOSM.

However, Somalia, which is unable to get a central government since the past 19 years, is still unable to get peace and stability despite AMIOSM’s efforts.

IGAD is a seven-country regional development organization in East Africa with its headquarters located in Djibouti City. It comprises Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, while Eritrea suspended its membership in 2007.

Source:Sunatimes.com

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