PANA
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Nairobi, Kenya - The African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has grown from 6,300 troops to 7,200 troops after an additional battalion from Uganda joined the force, an African Union (AU) envoy disclosed here Friday.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni pledged to immediately deploy 2,000 troops to AMISOM in July, days after Somali Islamist group, Al Shabab, attacked Ugandan capital, Kampala, to cow the Ugandan authorities into pulling out of Somalia.
AU Deputy Special Representative Wafula Wamunyinyi said efforts to keep Mogadishu safe had progressed in the past few months and the progress witnessed so far meant AMISOM was perfectly capable of monitoring return to peace in Mogadishu.
'We have 7,200 troops in Somalia at the moment and we expect more to come from other countries,' Wamunyinyi told a news conference Friday.
East African countries, members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the level of the heads of state and agreed to immediately boost the AMISOM troop levels by 2,000 troops to better handle the situation.
Wamunyinyi said although suicide bombers, mostly Al Shabab fighters, had intensified their offensive in the past month, the AMISOM had shown it was capable of effectively tackling the situation in Mogadishu.
'We are making some gains. The fact that we have contained the insurgents is evidence enough that if we receive everything we have been asking for, we should be able to respond to the situation effectively,' said Wamunyinyi, a former Kenyan parliamentarian.
African countries have been reluctant to contribute troops and equipment, including military hardware to the Mogadishu-based AMISOM, because of low payment for its troops and the lack of compensation mechanism for the replacement of lost equipment.
Wamunyinyi said the issues of compensation has been addressed and the UN has agreed to raise the salaries paid to AMISOM troops to the same level as those payable at any UN peacekeeping operations across the world.
African Union Commission Chairperson Jean Ping announced in July the low pay was part of the problem that AMISOM faced.
The pay was increased from US$500 to US$750 in July. Wamunyinyi said the UN had greed to push the salary to US$1050 a month.
The Deputy AU envoy also spoke about the worsening humanitarian situation in Mogadishu following intense militia activity in the month of Ramadan.
Source: PANA