The United States is circulating a draft resolution calling on the United Nations to send troops to Somalia to replace an existing African Union (AU) force consisting of troops from Burundi and Uganda. The draft, sent to the United States' 14 partners on the Security Council, expresses the council's “intent to establish a United Nations peacekeeping operation ... in Somalia as a follow-on force” to the current AU force, known as AMISOM, according to the Reuters news agency, which has seen a copy of the draft. The AMISOM force has deployed 3,000 troops, despite a mandate that calls for 8,200 troops. There have been previous calls for a U.N. force but countries have expressed unwillingness to commit peacekeeping troops to Somalia, arguing that there is no peace to keep in a country that has been without a functioning government since 1991. Ethiopian troops, who have been fighting alongside Somalia troops for the past two years, began withdrawing from the war-torn Horn of Africa country on Tuesday leaving a power vacuum that could be filled by any one of a number of warring factions. Last month, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said “the situation is not ripe, the conditions are not favorable,” for a U.N. force. He also said he had contacted some 50 countries and not one was willing to lead a stabilization force in Somalia.
