Burundi has confirmed it sent an additional 850 soldiers to Somalia last week to bolster the African Union peacekeeping force.
The deployment brings the AU force in the capital, Mogadishu, up to its full authorized strength of 8,000.
Officials with the Burundian army and the African Union mission, known as AMISOM, confirmed the deployment.
The peacekeeping force helps the U.N.-backed Somali government hold off a fierce Islamist insurgency.
Uganda, which provides the bulk of the AU troops, has offered to increase the force's size to 20,000, if other parties will provide funding, logistics, and equipment.
Somalia has dealt with nearly two decades of violence and lawlessness since the fall of the last stable central government.
