The Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) have clarified the alleged delayed payment of allowances to soldiers serving in Somalia.
Following the allegations circulating on social media, mostly X, formerly Twitter, some UPDF soldiers sent to Somalia under the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) have not received allowances for about 10 months.
Col. Deo Akiiki, the Deputy UPDF Spokesperson, said allowances are paid by the African Union’s (AU) directly to the to the soldier’s account immediately.
“This information is verifiable, and anyone can find out from schedules sent to all troop-contributing countries. The African Union waits for partners to contribute money, which is later passed on to troop-contributing countries (TCCs),” Col. Akiiki said.
He, however, said that the UPDF officers continue to receive their salaries for home welfare as they wait for allowances from the African Union.
“The beauty with UPDF is that when a soldier is sent to the mission, his or her salary from the Ugandan government continues to come on the account to assist at home as allowances from the African Union are being waited for,” he said.
Akiiki clarified that UPDF is only mandated to pay when the AU categorically sends money as salary for the contributing troops, but the AU does not pay every month.
“UPDF can only pay when money is received from AU; it is not true that AU pays every month. All soldiers who have served in Somalia have had delays. Akiiki said.
Uganda was the first East African country to deploy troops under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), now the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATIMS), into Somalia in March 2007. The Ugandan contingent remains the largest, with 6,223 troops. Until now, Uganda has deployed 12 battlegrounds in the mission area. The recently deployed Battle Group 12 joined their Burundian counterparts in Baidoa.
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