Death of al-Qaeda's East Africa boss an opportunity for AU

It emerged at the weekend that Fazul Abdullah Mahammed, Africa's most wanted terrorist, was shot dead by chance, along with one of his henchmen, after refusing to stop at a roadblock in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, last week.

Mahammed, who is believed to have masterminded the deadly 1998 al-Qaeda truck bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and his cohort appeared to have taken a wrong turning as they drove their vehicle to a meeting with members of al-Shebab, the Somali terror group that has caused so much mayhem in the anarchic Horn of Africa country.

Mahammed's death will no doubt significantly disrupt al-Qaeda's operations in East Africa.

Not only was he behind the embassy bombings, which killed 224 people, in 2002 he planned a suicide attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, which killed 15 people, and last year he was linked to a double bombing in Uganda - on the eve of the World Cup final - that killed 76 people.

While Africa might be a safer place after the demise of Mahammed, appalling socio-economic conditions in countries such as Somalia, where effective government ceases to exist outside the capital, are a fertile breeding ground for men of his ilk.

The African Union, supported by the United Nations, would do well to press home the advantage by beefing up the AU's peacekeeping force in that lawless country and redoubling their efforts to find a lasting political solution to its conflicts.

While they are at it, renewed efforts should be made to support the transition to democracy in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt.