The council is likely to allow a new upper limit of about 22,000 troops for the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
force amid mounting warnings over the Shabaab krazed killer threat after the Nairobi shopping mall attack last month.
U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told the council that advances made by the African force with the Somali army had "ground to a halt" because it lacked a sufficient number of troops.
The AU force, officially known as AMISOM, and the Somali army have pushed the fighters out of the capital Mogadishu and other major cities over the past 18 months.
But the Shabaab have regrouped and staged spectacular attacks, such as the Westgate Mall strike in Nairobi on September 17 in which 67 people died.
Suicide bombers have also inflicted major casualties in Mogadishu.
Shabaab "is mobile and is training and recruiting substantial numbers of frustrated, unemployed young men," Eliasson told a Security Council meeting on Somalia and efforts to support the country's interim government.
Eliasson reaffirmed a call by U.N. leader
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
and the African Union for "a significant temporary boost" to AMISOM's numbers.
The African Union has said it needs an extra 2,550 infantry troops and 1,800 support forces.