Nigeria to send peacekeeping battalion to Somalia

ABUJA, Jan 24 (Reuters) A battalion of Nigerian soldiers is expected to leave for Somalia in the next two weeks to join a planned African peacekeeping force in that country, Nigeria's Defence Minister said today.

The African Union has proposed sending about 8,000 peacekeepers to Somalia to bolster the interim government after Ethiopian troops complete their pull out from the chaotic country.

Defence Minister Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi said the Nigerian battalion, which normally contains between 770 and 1,000 troops, is already undergoing training and waiting for supplies and logistics to move into Somalia.

''One battalion is what we are preparing to move immediately for the peacekeeping mission and we hope that within the next two weeks, they will move,'' Aguiyi-Ironsi told Reuters after a cabinet meeting in Abuja.

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday backed the speedy deployment of an African force in Somalia, which has not known peace for 15 years.

REUTERS SI MIR RAI2250