East African leaders have renewed their calls to the United Nations to turn the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia into a UN mission.
The president of Somalia Sheikh Shariff Sheikh Ahmed warned the
hastily
convened meeting of the regional group Igad that Somalia was in the hands of al-Qaeda and extremist groups and that a radical strategy to end almost two decades of crisis was urgently needed.
Igad has agreed to deploy 2,000 more AU peacekeepers to Somalia. Kipruto arap Kirwa is the Igad Facilitator for Somalia.
"We expect that peace troops will come from Africa, but we do expect the international partners to be able to give the necessary support for the troops to have
comparable
terms as troops elsewhere under the UN handle of a system."
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has reversed a controversial ban on the national football team playing internationally.
The decision came before a deadline set by world football's governing body, FIFA, which threatened to suspend Nigeria from international tournaments because of its rules against political interference in sport.
Caroline Duffield reports from Lagos.
The country's Football Federation has published a statement. It says that the president has
graciously
rescind
ed the decision to withdraw from international competition. It says that he
harken
ed to the passionate appeals of top officials and well-meaning Nigerians, and that he changed his mind