France is to go ahead with plans to train a contingent of Somali troops at its base in Djibouti despite the kidnap of two French advisers in Somalia, the foreign ministry said Thursday.
Around 500 Somali troops are due to travel to neighbouring Djibouti from next month in order to receive training from French forces designed to help them wrest control of their lawless country from Islamist rebels.
Two French agents were seized from hotel rooms in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Monday and are now being held separately by two Islamist armed groups in the capital, according to Somali government and rebel sources.
"Neither our general policy of supporting the strengthening of the Somali government in the security field nor our specific projects have been called into question," French foreign ministry spokesman Frederic Desagneaux said.
Desagneaux refused to confirm or deny reports that France has dispatched a high-level envoy to Somalia to negotiate with the hostage takers, saying: "As is usual in these types of situations, discretion is the order of the day."
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