President Yoweri Museveni suggested that anywhere from 12,000 to 20,000 troops could be provided for a UN- or African Union-led mission in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation. He said Uganda had the manpower, experience and training, but merely lacked the funding.
“The number is not a big deal, we can provide any number,” Museveni said at a news conference in the State House on Wednesday. “What’s the alternative? ... Somalia should not be taken over by terrorists. That’s the bottom line.”
The comments followed a more than hour-long meeting between Museveni and the Security Council, at which Somalia was a major topic of discussion.
Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 when warlords overthrew a longtime dictator and then turned on each other, plunging the country into chaos and anarchy.
The transitional government, established in 2004, and the 7,100-strong African Union peacekeeping force, have struggled to defend key installations in the capital, Mogadishu, against an offensive by Al-Shabab Islamic extremists.
At a mini-summit on the sidelines of last month’s UN
General Assembly ministerial meeting, AU chairman Jean Ping appealed for funds to increase the force from the current 8,000 ceiling to 20,000, saying the troops were available but money was needed to pay and equip them.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a news conference Wednesday in New York that he was encouraged by the “strong commitment of world leaders” to support Somalia’s transitional government in strengthening its army, police and domestic institutions, which he said will also require financial and political support.
Uganda’s support of the AU-led mission in Somalia has drawn fierce criticism from Al-Shabab, which has links to Al-Qaeda. It cited Uganda’s participation in the AU mission in claiming responsibility for July terror attacks in Uganda’s capital that killed 76 people.
