- Uganda suspends 20 officers sent for AU mission
International donors promised Somalia 1.8 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in reconstruction aid yesterday to back a three-year plan aimed at strengthening the country's economy and building up its fragile security.
Somali leaders and about 50 international delegations met in Brussels to endorse the plan, which includes steps to boost output, foster political dialogue and improve day-to-day security after decades of debilitating civil war.
The 28-nation European Union, already the largest donor to the horn of Africa country, led the financial pledges, committing 650 million euros. "I am glad to note that pledges today reached 1.8 billion euros, backing with financial means these new priorities and framework," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the closing session of the conference. Somalia plunged into two decades of civil war and lawlessness after the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991.
But donors have seen signs of stabilisation since the African Union's peacekeeping troops helped drive Islamist out of the capital Mogadishu and many other strongholds in central and southern Somalia.
The country of 10 million people is one of the poorest in the world, with per capita income of just $600 a year. Meanwhile, Uganda has suspended 20 army officers accused of corruption in Somalia while battling Islamist militants as part of an African Union (AU) force, a Ugandan army spokesman has told the BBC.
The officers are accused of selling food and fuel, meant for troops, on the black market, reports say. The Ugandan contingent head, Brigadier Michael Ondoga, is among those being investigated.
Uganda is the biggest contributor to the AU force of about 18,000. The force, funded mainly by the United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU) is fighting the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab group in Somalia. Brigadier Ondoga has not commented on the allegations.
He was among the officers who had been recalled for allegedly "getting involved in conduct injurious" to the AU force, a Ugandan defence ministry spokesman said, a news agency reports. Army spokesman Colonel Paddy Ankunda told the BBC Swahili Service that the 20 would remain suspended, pending the outcome of an investigation into the allegations against them.
National Mirror
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