Uganda will lose over four billion shillings in earnings every month after the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) withdraws from Somalia.
According to sources, foreign troops serving under the auspices of the Africa Union Mission to Somalia (Amisom) to fight the Islamic militant group Al Shabaab, are paid US$1028 per individual every month, of which US$200 is deducted as ‘administrative costs’ for the troop-contributing country.
In 2007 Uganda became the first African country to send peacekeeping troops to serve under Amisom and currently there are about 6000 UPDF men and women in Somalia, all of who collectively contribute about US$1.2 million (approximately Shs4.2bn) in monthly administrative costs.
According to the UPDF Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) General Edward Katumba Wamala, the pull out from Somalia scheduled for December 2017 follows cold relations that separately developed between Uganda and the principal Amisom financiers, the US, UK and Turkey.
By press time it was not possible to talk to the UPDF spokesperson Lt Col Paddy Ankunda.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the Amisom troops fighting against the Islamic militant Al Shabaab, have not received salaries for six months, after the contingent accounting officers allegedly failed to account for the previous tranche disbursed.
