Hundreds of Burundi troops deploy in Mogadishu

Mogadishu: At least 400 troops from Burundi arrived in Mogadishu on Saturday to help the peacekeeping force in Somalia, airport officials said.

The troops landed at the Mogadishu airport onboard two African Union military planes.

The AU mission, Amisom, is guarding sites in Mogadishu where the government and Ethiopian military allies are fighting insurgents.

Peacekeepers at the airport and elsewhere in the capital have been targeted in a string of attacks since Islamists launched an insurgency in 2007.