The monthly allowance for each Uganda People’s Defense Force soldier serving in Somalia has been reduced from $1, 028 to $828. PHOTO | NMG
What you need to know:
The European Union, which through the African Union picks the tab, has not formally said why it reduced the allowance.
Kampala. The monthly allowance for each Uganda People’s Defense Force soldier serving in Somalia has been reduced from UShs3, 378, 760 million to USh2, 721, 410.
The European Union, which through the African Union picks the tab, has not formally said why it reduced the allowance.
When contacted Saturday through Sunday, Uganda’s Defence ministry spokesperson Paddy Ankunda said was paying his last respects to Court Martial chairperson Major General Levi Karuhanga, 60, who died on Friday.
Each Ugandan soldier in Somalia will however get only UShs2, 064, 070 because Uganda’s defense ministry will, as it has been wont to, deduct UShs657, 346 from each soldier’s allowance to recover “preparatory expenses” – training et al.
Some Ugandan figures though attribute it to the international community’s “loss of interest” in the Somali mission.
“It could be that they are losing interest in Somalia because despite the resources and the time invested, al Shabaab [a terrorist group] is still present and is still causing chaos – even outside Somalia,” Shadow Defense and Security minister Hassan Kaps Fungaroo said on Friday, April 22 during an interview with the Daily Monitor. “Why else are the funders reducing the money at a critical time like this?”
Uganda deployed troops in Somalia in 2007 to maintain peace. According to some accounts, Uganda between 2, 700 and 7, 000 soldiers in Somalia.
Other countries with troops there are Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Kenya, which went to Somalia following al Shabaab incursions in northeastern Kenya.
For its presence there, al Shabaab has carried out raids some in Kenya others on the Kenya Defense Force troops’ bases in Somalia, killing many Kenyans. The al Shabaab terror group wants the foreign troops propping up Somali’s Transitional National Government to withdraw from Somali soil, which Kenya and Uganda have rejected since it could imply they have capitulated to terrorist group’s threats.
Mr Peter Okeyoh, a member of the House Committee on Defense and Internal Affairs, said the reduction of allowances could dampen the morale of the Uganda troops in Somalia.
“It will affect the morale of the Ugandan soldiers,” Mr Okeyoh said on Friday. “Our troops have not been paid their allowances for several months.” (NMG)
