AU peacekeeping force in Somali to expand by 4,000

The military chiefs of Uganda and Burundi say that their countries are in the process of deploying 4,000 additional troops to the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

Burundi's Maj. Gen. Godefroid Niyombare and Uganda's Gen. Aronda Nyakairima said in a statement released late Saturday that each country has committed to give 2,000 additional soldiers and Burundi has already deployed a battalion.

They say that the current force of 8,000 AU peacekeepers supporting Somalia's weak-U.N. backed government was making progress in reoccupying territories held by the Islamist insurgents and is in control of 60 percent of the capital, Mogadishu.

Somalia has been mired in violence since 1991 since warlord topple longtime dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other