Bartamaha (Kampala):-Somali President Sharif Ahmed met his Ugandan counterpart, Mr Museveni, on Friday at the latter’s country home in Rwakitura and held talks on the conflict in the war-torn state.

Top on the agenda was the bilateral relations concerning Ugandan troops serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia – Amison.

The Presidential Press Secretary, Ms Linda Nabusayi, said yesterday that President Sharif was paying a courtesy call on his Ugandan counter-part. Both presidents have been campaigning for an increase in the number of peacekeepers as well as their mandate to enable them counter the Somali rebel groups vehemently opposing both the TFG and Amisom peacekeepers.

According to Mr Abdirashid Hashi, the press director at the State House in Mogadishu, a number of army officers and legislators travelled with the president as they departed from Aden Abdulle International Airport.

The Somali president was last in Uganda during the AU Summit in July in the aftermath of the bombing on July 11. The blasts that killed over 76 football fans in Kampala were subsequently claimed by the Somali Islamist group, al-Shabaab.

President Ahmed’s visit to Uganda comes at a time when Mr Augustine Mahiga, the UN envoy to Somalia, told the UN Security Council in New York on Thursday that more international action is needed to stop foreign fighters and weapons getting into Somalia to help the al Qaeda-inspired al-Shabaab militia.

He suggested the peacekeepers in Somalia be boosted to 20,000.

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Source:-Daily Monitor.

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