The European Union has reduced the allowances for peacekeeping troops serving in Somalia under Amisom. According to the EU, each peacekeeper earns a ‘strict’ allowance of US$1028 but with the new changes the take home per month will come down to US$822.4.
The disclosure was made by the Chief of Defence Forces General Edward Katumba Wamala, who said the allowances of a peacekeeper had been slashed by 20 per cent, beginning January this year.
“I can tell you and I know you are going to turn it around, but from January (2016) the European Union started cutting down on the allowances (of the troops) by 20 per cent,” Gen Katumba Wamala, who was responding to a question over a reported seven-month salary delay for the Amisom troops, reportedly told The Observer.
According to Gen Katumba Wamala, the bureaucratic chain of disbursement also contributes to the delay in payments.
“The allowances are got from the African Union. African Union gets money from the European Union because African countries cannot raise the money to pay troops. So, the EU, which supports this mission, pays the AU and then the African Union pays the troop-contributing countries who pay the troops,” Gen Katumba said.
Uganda was the first country to deploy peacekeeping troops to war-ravaged Somalia in March 2007 and to date has the biggest contingent of over 5000.
Meanwhile, the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces celebrates 35 years of a transformational process that included its predecessor, the National Resistance Army (NRA), which was started as a rebel outfit in 1981. And tomorrow, February 6 marks the day the then rebels attacked Kabamba military barracks, where the hero of the day was General Elly Tumwine Tuhirirwe, who fired the first shot during the early morning raid on the military training installation.
As part of the celebrations, the UPDF has been carrying out a series of exercises among them cleaning of health units in different areas.
