Somalia
Uganda is Ready to Send 10000 Troops to Somalia
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Aug 31, 2010 - 2:17:50 PM

Uganda is ready to send up to 10,000 extra-troops to the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia once the U.S. provides the required funding, Radio Garowe reports.

"We can even call up to 10,000 but that will depend on whether the United States supports us or not," Uganda's Chief of Defence Forces General Aronda Nyakairima told the Daily Monitor.

Uganda currently has more than 4,000 troops in Mogadishu to support interim government Sheikh Sharif’s against the Al Shabaab, a self-declared Al Qaeda affiliate..

"We don’t want to overstretch our budget by calling up our [reserve] forces and then we have to even pay [their] salary," he said, adding: "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."

In July, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni promised to remove Al-Shabaab, saying the AU would send 20,000 troops to Somalia after the Kampala attacks.
Uganda and Burundi are the only countries that have contributed troops to the African Union peacekeeping mission in war-torn Somalia.

Al-Shabaab strongly opposes the policies of the government in Somalia, claimed responsibility for an attack in Uganda's capital on July 11 that killed at least 74 people.

GAROWE ONLINE

http://www.garoweonline.com