World should provide funding for peacekeeping troops to ensure humanitarian aid routes in Somalia

With the retreat of the Islamist extremist group al-Shabab out of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, where famine is threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, "the U.N.-backed peacekeeping force can and should be quickly expanded," according to Somalia's prime minister and the U.N. envoy to the nation, in order to "allow the force to move out from the capital to secure routes for aid," a Washington Post editorial states.

"What's missing, predictably, is money as well as military equipment and logistical support to deploy the troops," the editorial says, adding, "That's where the United States, the NATO alliance and Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar should come in." The editorial concludes, "By supporting the expansion of peacekeeping forces, foreign aid can accomplish two critical goals: pushing back an extremist movement that is allied with al-Qaeda and making possible the delivery of critically needed food for hundreds of thousands of people who may otherwise starve" (9/15).