Peacekeepers arrive

Mogadishu, Somalia

Peacekeepers returned to Somalia this week for the first time since 1995, when a U.S.-U.N. operation ended in ignominious retreat. Some 350 Ugandan soldiers, the first wave of a proposed African Union force of 8,000, landed at the Mogadishu airport just hours before Islamic insurgents hit the airport with mortar fire. A few months ago, President Abdullahi Yusuf, with heavy military backing from Ethiopia, drove Islamists out of Mogadishu. But since Ethiopians aren’t particularly popular in Somalia, the African Union is sending troops to replace them, hoping to stabilize the country. It’s a tall order: Somalia has been in anarchy since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.