{{Canada announced Tuesday funding to bolster African Union forces in Somalia, after a deadly mall attack in Nairobi by Al-Shabaab Islamists last month}}.
Canadian Foreign Affairs minister John Bohn Baird pledged $4.8 million for enhancing counterterrorism efforts through the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), as well as $960,000 for other security and conflict resolution programs in the Horn of Africa.
The funds are in addition to $35.7 million already committed by Ottawa for Somalia, and $2.4 billion committed by the international community.
At a joint press conference, Somalia’s visiting Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs minister Fawzia Yusuf Adam said her government in partnership with the African Union “is defeating” Al-Shabaab.
“Al-Shabaab is on its last legs, they lost numbers, they lost morale, they lost ground, and they are only in small pockets. We are not worried about them. We are in control of the situation, but we need a last push,” with support from the international community to strengthen the country’s security forces, she said.
“We need to stand on our feet and defend our shores and defend our ground and finish Al-Shabaab.”
The four-day bloodbath at the upmarket Westgate shopping mall, which Kenyan forces brought to an end last Tuesday, left at least 67 people dead. The Kenyan Red Cross said Monday that 39 more were still missing.
wirestory
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