Call to AU for more troops in Somalia

East African defence ministers want more troops recruited to the African Union force trying to stabilise Somalia. The ministers met in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Abeba yesterday to try to forge a strategy to defeat the al-Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group, which has been driven out of the capital Mogadishu.

Ethiopia joined Kenya last week in unilaterally deploying troops. Nairobi sent troops into the lawless Horn of Africa country late last year following a wave of cross-border attacks and kidnappings.