Two thousand troops from Guinea and Djibouti are to be made “immediately” available, bolstering the 6,000 or so from Uganda and Burundi already defending Somalia’s battered capital, Mogadishu. Their job is supposed to change too, from merely providing protection for Somalia’s weak transitional government to becoming a fighting force in the war against terrorism.

This escalation follows the bombings in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, perpetrated by suicide-bombers sent by Somalia’s Islamist rebels of the Shabab group, which has links to al-Qaeda. More than 80 Ugandans and foreigners watching the World Cup football final on July 11th were killed.

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