Uganda, Burundi Send More Peacekeepers

Risdel Kasasira

28 March 2011

Uganda and Burundi will each add 2,000 peacekeepers in Somalia by mid this year to raise the number from 8,000 to 12,000, an increment approved by the UN Security Council in December last year.

The offer to increase troops in the volatile Somali capital, Mogadishu, was announced last week in Mogadishu by Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, and his Burundian counterpart, Maj. Gen. Godefroid Niyombare in a joint statement to all field commanders of AU forces in Somalia.

The defence chiefs, who spent four days in Mogadishu last week meeting politicians, community leaders and field commanders, said the troops are already heading for pre-deployment training.

Amisom making progress

“We are making steady but consistent progress and we now have 60 per cent territorial control as a result of the recently implemented offensive and we will continue to build on this,” the statement said.

Burundi and Uganda are the only two African countries that have committed forces to support the AU-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif.

But Gen. Aronda and Maj. Gen. Niyombare seem to be optimistic that Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria will honour their promises and send troops pledged in 2005 to back up Uganda and Burundi.

Military experts say supporting Burundi and Uganda to raise the number of troops to the required level is better than more countries deploying, which would cause egoistic wars in the peacekeeping mission.

Nigeria and South Africa are reluctant to deploy on ground that Amisom is a substandard peacekeeping mission.

Amisom spokesperson, Maj. Barigye Ba-Hoku, expressed optimism that stability will return to Somalia after the recent operation that saw peacekeepers gain ground.

“The solution here is not military alone. It is political and humanitarian also,” he said.

There have been dramatic changes and improvements in the way Mogadishu is governed. Normal life is starting to return. We see street lights, cleaning, even rebuilding. All signs of a stabilising situation” the statement said.

The Defence Chiefs met with the President of Somalia and the Prime Minister of the Transitional Federal Government, cabinet ministers, and other government and grassroots local leaders.

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