Army claims AMISOM soldiers finally paid their 6-months missed salary
The Uganda army under their spokesperson Brig Richard Karemire has claimed that soldiers under AMISOM in Somalia have finally been paid their arrears following six months of duty without pay.
According to Karemire, money for the Ugandan contingency has been released and should be hitting the different accounts before the week ends.
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“The money is part of the support to the mission, it will boost the soldiers’ morale,” Karemire claimed.
Sources claim the soldiers have not been paid allowances for 2,450 soldiers belonging to battle group BG 26, for over 8 months, amounting to Shs53b. The group was deployed to Somalia in December last year and have only been paid one month.
This is not the first time AMISOM soldiers are going without pay. In 2017, the minister of Defence and Veteran affairs Adolf Mwesigye asked the government to fast track arrears for AMISOM soldiers to the tune of 37b.
Accordingly, the money was to compensate for the wear and tear of equipment.
In the same year, a section of soldiers in the Somali army staged a short-lived mutiny in Mogadishu to protest nonpayment of arrears for 4 months.
In March this year, a section of Somali soldiers on AMISOM mission vacated at least three of their bases in protest over months of missed payments.
