Bujumbura — Burundi will next month begin withdrawing its troops deployed with an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia unless they get months of unpaid wages, says President Pierre Nkurunziza. "The Burundian government has written to the African Union to announce that if the nonpayment situation with our troops continues, we are ready to withdraw them from Somalia starting from January," Nkurunziza told reporters on Friday in Rutana, about 95km southeast of the capital, Bujumbura. The African Union peacekeeping force, known as Amisom, is helping the Somalian government army fight an insurgency by al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants. The force has 22,126 soldiers and police officers from six African nations, including Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. Burundi contributed 5,432 troops, second only to Uganda’s 6,223, according to its website. Nkurunziza said last week the troops had not received allowances for 10 months, since the European Union, which finances the AU m...
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