Burundi AMISOM contingent plays down Islamists' threat

PANA
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Bujumbura (Pana) - The Burundian contingent of the African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) will stay in Mogadishu despite serious threats made by the Al Shabab Somali Islamists insurgents against any foreign military p resence in the country, the National Defence Force spokesman (NDS), Colonel Gaspard Baratutuza, said on Wednesday.

Colonel Gaspard Baratutuza was speaking on the national radio after the defection of about 60 Somali soldiers who joined the ranks of the Islamists opposed to the government in place in Mogadishu and its foreign military supporters.

"We are used to the defection of Somali soldiers, and this is unlikely to undermine the morale of our troops in Mogadishu,' the spokesman said.

Col. Baratutuza said the fact that the Al Shabab armed group had claimed a wave of desertions within what was left of the Somali government's army into its ranks was only a matter of "propaganda" in a country where over 85% of people were not at all hostile to the presence of foreign troops.

AMISCOM troops currently in Somalia are from Burundi and Uganda and are essentially based in Mogadishu.

These troops won fame, in addition to their peacekeeping mission, with humanitarian actions such as distribution of free potable water and medicine, the spokesman of the Burundian army said.

However, the Islamists insurgents are known to carry out their threats having killed about 30 Burundian and Ugandan soldiers in Mogadishu.