Uganda wants AMISOM funding reviewed

KAMPALA- Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa, revealed on Friday that government is pushing for a revision of funding for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) by the international community.

Mr Kutesa, addressing journalists at the Media Centre about resolutions of the just concluded 28th African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said: “What we want is contribution based on assessment of troop member country.”

The government deployed troops to Somalia in 2007, and currently maintains one of the largest peacekeeping force of 6,000 in Somalia. The Mission is funded by the European Union (EU) and United Nations through trust funds, respectively.

However, the EU recently announced plans to roll back support to Amisom citing competing priorities and further pleaded with the international community to fill the gap. It said it would cut the soldiers’ pay by 20 per cent.

Mr Kutesa was commenting about Tuesday’s meeting between President Museveni and UK’s Secretary of State for International Development Priti Patel on the sidelines of the AU summit.

The two discussed, among others, the security situation and political transition in Somalia. However, President Museveni specifically raised the red flag about shortage of funds to deal with the refugee crisis in the region.

“Discussions are, however, ongoing on this proposal,” Mr Kutesa said, adding: Africa’s political executives meeting for the summit discussed jump-starting an earlier proposal for each member country to step-up funding to the AU missions on the continent all of which are usually the obligation of the EU, UN or the United Sates.