The Somali community in Uganda pleads with the European Union (EU) to keep Burundi peace keeping troops in Somalia. The community hopes that the EU as the donor to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) will mobilize funds to pay the troops’ salaries, reports the Daily Monitor.
Security in Somalia is still very fragile that is why we still need Amisom. The other day, media reported a gunman believed to be an al-Shabaab militant having shot someone dead in State House [in Mogadishu]. This is evidence that we are not yet stable to stand on our own,” the Somali community chairman in Uganda, Mr Hassan Hussein, told journalists in Kampala on Monday.
Burundi forces in AMISOM have not received payment for over a year according to Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza. Prompting the President to set out an ultimatum for the pull out.
“Failure by the African Union to sort out the problem by next month, Burundian soldiers will pull out of the mission,” said Pierre Nkurunziza
According to the chairman of the Somali community in Uganda, the withdrawal of AMISOM from Somalia will wash away even the little peace that the country has achieved.
Burundi has the second biggest troop in Somalia under AMISOM with 5,432 soldiers. Uganda has the biggest number of soldiers in the country; other countries who have soldiers in the African Union peace keeping mission include Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
The Burundi President accused AU of undermining its peacekeepers, whom the country spends a lot of its resources on which includes training and equipping before being deployed to Somalia.
“People should know that no one can afford to pay our soldiers’ lives and those who were injured,” he said,
