Tempers and bullets are threatening to boil over Burundi’s government threatening to withdraw its troops from the African Union force fighting militant Islamists in Somalia.
{PHOTO) Ugandan peacekeeping troops stand during a ceremony at Mogadishu airport in Somalia.
Burundi’s Defence Minister Emmanuel Ntahomvukiye told their parliament that the soldiers had not received their $800 (£640) monthly allowance from the European Union (EU) for 10 months. They are only receiving their low army wages. The EU stopped sending the troops’ money to Burundi following a violent political crisis in the country.
For almost a year, Uganda People’s Defence Forces’ soldiers have been complaining about the monthly allowances which were reportedly reduced from Shs 3.5 million ($1,028) to Shs 2.8 million ($828).
In support of Burundi’s resolution, Uganda parliament Defence Committee chairperson, Judith Nabakooba says that the reduction and delay in pay, demotivates the troops yet they work in risky operations. She further says that the continued delay in payment of salaries to the troops affects the efficiency of their operations.
Burundi (5,432) is the second largest contributor to the AU intervention force after Uganda who deployed troops to in Somalia in 2007, and is the force’s biggest contributor, supplying more than 6,000 of the 22,000 AMISOM troops. The others are Kenya (3,664), Ethiopia (4,395) and Djibouti (2,000).
Burundi’s pull out will be detrimental considering Uganda is set to withdraw its troops from Somalia next year, ending a decade-long stay in the Horn of Africa country. Kenya keeps covering up the massacre of its troops. On January 15, as many as 141 Kenyan soldiers were dead — some shot at point-blank range but in the months since, there was no national day of mourning, no roll call of honor, and no explanation. The only clues to what happened are contained in a propaganda video made by Al-Shabaab itself.
Now Burundi’s withdraw plan could worsen the security situation in the country that has been made ungovernable by terrorist groups, which have intensified attacks in the last few months.
