UNITED NATIONS — Somalia's transitional government now controls more than half of the capital and extra African Union troops to be announced within days will be used to spread control across the country, a top minister said Friday.
The UN Security Council is to pass a resolution next week which will allow the AU force in Somalia (AMISOM) to be increased from 8,000 to 12,000 troops, diplomats said.
Substantial progress has been made on security in Mogadishu since the new transitional government took power in November, Abdulkareem Hassan Jama, information and telecommunications minister, told a news conference at the UN headquarters.
"Many articles that you read say that the government only controls a few blocks and it could not survive without the help of AMISOM," Jama said.
He called the AMISOM presence "critical" but added: "There are vast areas of Mogadishu, over 55 percent, which is controlled, along with the AMISOM forces, by the Somali army, the transitional government forces."
Between 70 and 80 percent of the population of the stricken capital are in the government controlled areas he said. But there are "vast ghost zones" in the areas controlled by the Islamist rebel group Shebab, he added.
Jama said that the extra African troops will be used to further extend government control in the country.
Many observers say that the transitional government has a very restricted power in the capital.
But the minister said "overall Somalia is not, as some would put it, mission impossible, it is mission possible."
The transitional government's mandate runs out in August 2011 and Jama said the authorities were working on improving services and had stepped up negotiations for a new constitutional framework for the country.
