Tuesday, February 13, 2007
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KAMPALA, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Uganda's parliament on Tuesday voted unanimously in favour of sending 1,500 peacekeeping troops to Somalia as part of an African Union mission.
Parliamentary speaker Edward Ssekandi said 155 members of parliament voted in favour with no abstentions.
"To avoid a vacuum as Ethiopian troops withdraw, forces from other countries should follow immediately," Third Deputy Prime Minister Haji Ali Kirunda Kwejinja said in parliament.
Opposition lawmakers did not vote because they were staging a walkout from parliament.
The vote was the last step in the constitutional process needed to approve such a deployment.
The Somali government, which ousted rival Islamists in a December war with the help of Ethiopian troops, hopes the AU force can be deployed as soon as possible to stabilise the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.
Source: Reuters, Feb 13, 2007