Nairobi, Kenya ? East African nations tried to bolster Somalia’s largely powerless government Tuesday, imposing sanctions against warlords and threatening measures against their rival Islamic militiamen.

The coalition of east African nations also promised to collect any evidence of crimes against humanity committed by either side, which eventually could be used to prosecute them at the International Criminal Court.

The group said the sanctions include an immediate travel ban and bank account freeze on nine secular warlords, whose forces have been battling the fundamentalist militias for control of the chaotic nation.

The countries – Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya – threatened similar punitive measures against the Islamic militias that have gained the upper hand if they failed to cooperate with the weak, U.N.-backed transitional government.

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi had asked the east African nations for help through their Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD.

IGAD mediated talks four years ago that led to the formation of Somalia’s transitional government.

Last week, that government could only watch from the sidelines as the Islamic militia – which the U.S. accuses of harboring three al-Qaida leaders indicted in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania – drove the secular warlords from the capital, Mogadishu.

The fundamentalist militiamen of the group known as the Islamic Courts Union now control most of southern Somalia. The government has been unable to enter the violent capital because it does not have any security forces of its own.

Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju, who chaired the meeting, said that the sanctions on the warlords apply immediately and would also target their associates and arms dealers.

Five months of fighting between the warlords and militiamen in Mogadishu killed more than 330 people, most civilians caught in the crossfire.