The European Union intends to cut back its funding for Burundi’s peacekeeping contingent in Somalia. This is a move they hope will force President Pierre Nkurunziza into talks with opponents and prevent ethnic conflict.
It is estimated that Burundi's 5,400-strong contingent in Somalia’s AMISOM force earned 13 million dollars yearly and its soldiers a combined 52 million dollars.
A European diplomat insisted that the support for Burundi’s contingent of AMISOM cannot continue as it is.
He said that for each African soldier sent to Somalia, the contributing government receives 1,000 dollar a month for wages and logistics, paid for from a pot funded by the EU.
He said stopping the funding totally was a more extreme option but was unlikely to be carried due to Burundi’s determination to stay in the force.
“Cutting all funding would leave the African Union (AU), which oversees AMISOM’s 22,000-strong force, having to find another donor to pay Burundi’s troops.
“It is already under pressure as the EU had cut back its overall funding for AMISOM saying it wants other international donors to offer more help,’’ he said.
Another European diplomat said cutting all funding to Burundi’s contingent was far from being a reality right now.
The diplomat said alternatives were been looked at so that soldiers can be paid directly and cash would no longer be channelled via the government. This means the 20 per cent being kept by the state, worth about 13 million dollars a year, would be scrapped.
“There is no way we will pay that anymore.
“The EU is conducting negotiations with the AU aimed at finding a mechanism that by-passed Bujumbura altogether,’’ he said.
“Two per cent of the population, 220,000 people, have since fled to neighbouring countries like Rwanda, which was torn apart by genocide in 1994.
“Like Burundi, Rwanda has an ethnic Hutu majority and Tutsi minority,’’ he said.
