UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution that would send more than 4,000 troops to Somalia to help ensure national security and fight al-Shabaab.
The U.N. Security Council passed a unanimous resolution Tuesday extending the deployment of the African Union Mission in Somalia, created in 2007, to Oct. 31. The measure also called on the African Union to increase the number of troops in the U.N-backed mission from 17,731 to 22,126.
The Security Council said the "short-term enhancement" for the AU mission would last no more than 24 months.
U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson briefed members of the Security Council in late October following his tour of Somalia. He said al-Shabaab, a terrorist group with ties to al-Qaida, "is still able to conduct terror operations" not only in Somalia but elsewhere in the region.
More than 60 people were killed in al-Shabaab's attack on the upscale Westgate shopping center in Nairobi in September.
Somalia's recently-formed government is struggling to exert its authority beyond Mogadishu amid lingering national security challenges.
