Thousands of people have demonstrated in the coastal capital Mogadishu against African Union plans to deploy non-Muslim troops to Somalia. An AU-led team headed to Somalia on Monday on a delayed mission to assess security before the deployment of peacekeepers to the country which collapsed into anarchy in 1991 and has since been run by rival clan-based warlords. The future AU peacekeeping mission is to help Somalia's fledgling government re-establish itself at home. The government tentatively plans to return on 21 Febuary. Monday's protests, led by a federation of Islamic groups, were particularly aimed at plans to send troops from Ethiopia, a traditional rival of Somalia in the Horn of Africa, witnesses said. The protests echoed those held on Friday, where the federation called for "holy war" if non-Muslim troops came to Somalia.
A senior African Union official said the fact-finding team included officials from the AU, Arab League and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African peace resolution body. "They left for Somalia today," the senior AU official told Reuters. "They have left for Mogadishu." The trip had been due to begin on Friday but was delayed over security concerns, after BBC producer Kate Peyton was shot dead on Wednesday in one of the capital's less risky neighbourhoods.