United Nations ? The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize an African Union force to help stabilize Somalia, setting the stage for U.N. peacekeepers to take over the long-term job of bringing peace to the Horn of Africa nation.

The resolution adopted by the council urges the 53 African nations to contribute troops to the 8,000-strong force and urges other U.N. member states to provide financial support and any needed personnel, equipment and services.

The measure gives the AU force international legitimacy. Most African countries will not deploy troops in any peacekeeping mission without such authorization.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the poverty-stricken nation of seven million people into chaos.

The rout in December of the Islamic fundamentalist movement that controlled most of Somalia by Somali government troops and Ethiopian soldiers allowed the country’s weak U.N.-backed transitional government to enter the capital, Mogadishu, for the first time since it was established in 2004. But escalating violence threatens to plunge Somalia back into the years of anarchy and chaos.