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Nigeria will send more than 800 peacekeeping troops to Somalia’s capital in the next few weeks, according to a defense spokesman.

“We are sending a battalion of 850 officers and soldiers to Somalia,” Brigadier General Emeka Onwuamaegbu said from Abuja on Thursday.

“Right now the unit is putting finishing touches to their departure. We are hoping the troops will leave in the next few weeks,” Reuters quoted the general as saying.

The general also said the initial plan was for the troops to leave for Mogadishu by the end of August.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and around one million displaced since early last year in Somalia.

Uganda has 1,600 peacekeeping soldiers and Burundi more than 600 in Somalia, but they have been unable to stop the mass killings.

Nigeria has sent peacekeepers into several war zones around the world, including Sudan’s Darfur region, Sierra Leone, and Liberia

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