MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali insurgents warned Wednesday against the impending deployment of African peacekeepers in the war-ravaged country, as families began burying their dead after some of the heaviest violence to hit the capital city.
Just hours after the UN Security Council voted unanimously to authorize an African Union force to help stabilize Somalia, one insurgent leader said they will fight any foreign troops who are sent into the country.
"The UN should keep its hand off our country because the Islamic forces are ready to fight any foreign troops whether they are blue helmet or black helmet," said one insurgent leader identified only as Osman.
He claimed to be part of a newly formed extremist group the Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations.
The capital, Mogadishu, was quiet Wednesday a day after 15 people were killed and 45 wounded in the deadly crossfire between Somali government forces and Ethiopian troops battling against radical elements of an Islamist group ousted in late December.
Hundreds of families have begun fleeing the capital and hospitals say they are struggling to cope with the daily influx of wounded.
The UN resolution urges the 53 African nations to contribute troops to the 8,000-strong force and urges other UN member states to provide financial support and any needed personnel, equipment and services.
"For the first time in 15 years, the Somali people have a prospect of being governed by representative institutions that will provide them with security and stability," said Britain's UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, the main sponsor of the resolution, in New York.
Mogadishu's escalating violence threatens to plunge Somalia back into the years of anarchy and chaos that dogged the war-ravaged nation after 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, igniting a 16-year conflict.
Numerous attempts at restoring order have failed. The transitional government was formed in 2004 with UN help, but has had little authority because it has no real army or police force.
"I really welcome the UN move," said Khadija Ulusow, a businesswoman in the coastal city of 2 million. "We are tired of war, enough is enough."
Others were critical of the UN move.
"The UN is just serving the interests of our arch enemy Ethiopia to consolidate its grip on our country. That is unfair and unbecoming of a world body meant to be neutral," said 64-year-old Abu Ali Yarow.
The latest fighting has raised questions about the deployment of the AU force, whose first troops -- a small Burundian advance team -- were scheduled to be on the ground as early as Friday. Uganda canceled a Wednesday news conference without explanation at which it planned to announce a date for deployment of its force.
Nigeria, however, reiterated its commitment to establishing stability in Somalia, saying Tuesday that its 850 troops should arrive by mid-April.
The insurgency has grown increasingly bloody since the government, backed by soldiers from neighboring Ethiopia, drove out the Islamic group. Since then insurgents have staged near-daily attacks, with Mogadishu's civilian population bearing the brunt.
In the last three weeks, 51 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded. Ethiopian troops, largely seen as an occupying Christian force, have been accused of indiscriminate attacks against civilian-populated areas.
