The United Nations special representative to Somalia has said the situation in the country remains "dire" and "very grave" as divisions among the top leadership threaten efforts to rein in anti-government fighters.
Augustine Mahinga told the UN Security Council in New York on Thursday that the African Union mission in Somalia, or Amisom, was "very badly under-resourced, underprotected and underfunded".
"There are still gaps in financial and material support and they [troops] need more helictopters to help with troop movement and to evacuate casualties," Mahinga said.
He said AU peacekeepers "are not being paid in line with other UN peacekeeping forces and that they just don't have proper surveillance and communication systems to actively protect the civilian population".
Somalia has been gripped by violence as 6,000 AU peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi - with a UN mandate to protect the presidential palace and the airport - struggle to restore peace and order in the capital, Mogadishu.
The city has been regularly attacked by fighters belonging to al-Shabab, a group that seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) rule in Somalia and which the US accuses of being linked to al-Qaeda.
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