20100129
press tv

The UN Security Council has unanimously voted for the extension of the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

The 15-member body approved the continuation of the mandate for another year.

The Security Council also called on African states to boost the mission's troop numbers to up to 8,000 from its current 5,000 from Uganda and Burundi.

In a Thursday statement, the council also urged African countries to train Somali troops and support the government in Mogadishu.

The humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa nation has become worse, with international aid groups such as the World Food Program having to pull out due to security issues.

The fighting between government forces and local fighters in Somalia has escalated, claiming hundreds of lives and displacing thousands over the past weeks.

The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 100 thousand Mogadishu residents have fled the capital over the persistence of violence in the country.

UN's independent expert on human rights in Somalia Shamsul Bari has accused Somali fighters of carrying out "extrajudicial executions, planting mines, bombs and other explosive devices in civilian areas, and using civilians as human shields" in their campaign against the transitional government.

Meanwhile, the European Union, which runs naval operations along the Somali coast to combat piracy, says the total number of pirates' attacks has increased despite tightening of security in the Gulf of Eden shipping routes.