Addis Ababa (SD) – African Union member states are calling on the United Nations to help strengthen peacekeeping efforts in Somalia, sitting the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

A senior African Union official says the Somali government has been heavily dependent on the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) since their deployment to the country in 2007.

“We are calling on the UN, we are calling on all partners to continue to support Somalia knowing full well that we should not be thinking of the Afghanistan scenario on our continent,” he said. Adding “Officials in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, however oppose UN involvement in the peacekeeping effort”.

The African Union is campaigning for an extension of the AMISOM mission until 2027, and for the United Nations to provide more support, according to African Union political chief Bankole Adeoye.

“We hope by the end of October, when we have to go back to the UN Security Council, we will be in a better place to say this is what Africa, Somalia, the UN and the European Union all want together,” Adeoye said.

AMISOM forces have recently face a fierce criticism for killing civilians in Somalia, with the Somali Government announcing to a joint investigation.

The African Union’s proposal to extend the term comes at a time when Somalia is in the process of holding elections for both houses of parliament, and the end of the president’s term.