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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Aug 31 2010 - 08:00:43 EDT
Uganda awaits US funds to send troops to Somalia-army
Tue Aug 31, 2010 8:13am GMT
KAMPALA Aug 31 (Reuters) - Uganda is waiting for U.S. funding to send up to
10,000 extra troops to the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia,
Uganda's Chief of Defence Forces General Aronda Nyakairima told the Daily
Monitor on Tuesday.
"We can even call up to 10,000 but that will depend on whether the United
States supports us or not," he said.
Only Uganda and Burundi have contributed troops for Somalia despite repeated
requests by the EU- and U.S.-funded AU.
Al Shabaab, a militant Islamic militia in Somalia fighting to topple the
Transitional Federal Government (TFG), claimed responsibility for an attack
in Uganda's capital on July 11 that killed nearly 80 people.
The group said the attack was revenge for Uganda's deployment in Somalia and
warned of further attacks if it did not withdraw its troops -- about 4,000
-- deployed in Mogadishu under the AU's more than 6,300-strong AMISOM
mission.
"We don't want to overstretch our budget by calling up our (reserve) forces
and then we have to even pay (their) salary," Nyakairima said.
"To my knowledge, America has undertaken to support that undertaking; that
when we call up (the reserves), they will do this. But we will be waiting
and see what happens," he said. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by
Louise Ireland)
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