From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Nov 27 2009 - 07:37:48 EST
AU troops in Somalia go for six months without pay
Tabu Butagira
Kampala
November 27, 2009
Failure by African Union officials to account for millions of dollars for
Somalia operations has dried up payments for the 4,500 peace-keeping troops
after upset donors abruptly halted disbursements.
A top diplomat says this could affect the morale of the soldiers to tackle
threats from radical Al Shabab militants bidding to topple Sheik Sharif's
beleaguered Federal Transitional Government.
Ambassador Nicholas Bwakira, AU's special representative to Somalia, told
the Voice of America in an interview published yesterday, that Ugandan and
Burundian troops in the restive Mogadishu were last given allowances in May.
"This has a very bad impact on the morale of the troops and that of the
government concerned," the envoy said, citing already 80 deaths of AU
troops, as further disincentive.
Uganda has lost 37 troops in Somalia while Burundi, the other only
troop-contributing African country, has had 43 of its soldiers felled,
mainly in roadside bomb explosions.
With each soldier on duty in Mogadishu budgeted to earn an average $550
(about Shs1 million) each month, the arrears due to the 3,000 UPDF soldiers
alone over the months, the seventh being the ending November, thus add to
some $11.6 million (Shs21.6 billion).
Yesterday, Defence Spokesman Felix Kulayigye, said the ministry has been
"engaging" officials at the AU headquarters over the financial blues, but
the outstanding arrears for the peacekeepers is for four months.
"We are confident the matter will be sorted out sooner rather than later,"
he said, adding, "Our troops know that they are not in Mogadishu for money.
They have a mission to accomplish and are doing their work very well."
He said soldiers deployed on the Somalia mission are having their monthly
pay from the army here wired to their accounts regularly.
The bad news is that AU is broke and incoming international financing,
including under the $295 million (Shs551 billion) pledged at the April
donor's conference in Brussels, is but just a trickle.
For instance, the Somali government has thus far got three million dollars
of the pledged funds, with the US offering $2 million and the Arab League $1
million.
The Somali Treasury Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman, who spoke to the Voice
of America, worried about a bleak future for his government that is now
stuck with a programme to train 10,000 Police as well as 5,000 soldiers.
"Most of the regions in [Somalia] are now controlled by al-Shabab that has
links with Al-Qaeda," Mr Osman said.
"So, if this continues, what will happen is [that] the Al-Shabab will become
the next government and we will see the next Afghanistan in Somalia and that
is what we don't want."
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