On 23 July 2010, just before the African Union Summit in Kampala, the AU Commission Chairperson Jean Ping said that he had asked countries such as South Africa, Angola, Nigeria, Ghana and Guinea to send troops to Somalia to boost the currently under-strength African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). This announcement came against the background of the Somali group al-Shabaab’s suicide attacks in Kampala that claimed the lives of 76 people, and increased attacks on Ugandan and Burundian troops in Mogadishu.