Despite recent successes in liberating more areas from Al Shabaab insurgents, countries contributing troops to the African Union Mission in Somalia are unhappy with the mission’s partners over inadequate funding, logistical support and welfare as well as lack of cohesion locally and internationally.

These issues have slowed the pace of building the Somali National Army (SNA).

In the absence of a robust SNA, some troop-contributing counties like Uganda have paid a heavy price—losing lives and military equipment worth millions of dollars—in seven years of battling the Somali militants.

These were the sentiments expressed by speakers at the 2015 Amisom stakeholders’ retreat held from January 7 to 8, in Kampala, to evaluate the mission’s mandate and relevance to the objectives of the government of Somalia.

Somalia is expected to hold a referendum on the national Constitution and a General Election, termed Vision 2016, effectively taking full charge of its own security and democracy matters.

However, this will not happen unless there is internal cohesion among the political forces within Somalia, and more commitment from the international community towards fast-tracking of the SNA to finish and sustain the job done by Amisom so far.

READ: Somali MPs call for withdrawal of Amisom

“A Somali National Army must be built. To fight a war you need an army, and then police can come behind the lines. We offered to send special forces to Mogadishu to train the army, but our partners said they were not ready,” said Uganda’s Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga.

Abdullahi Hamood, senior adviser in Somalia’s Interior Ministry, said his government recommends that the overall capacity and numbers of the SNA be significantly increased with proper equipment.

Currently SNA has just 20,000 soldiers, but is envisaged to build a 50,000-strong force. Mr Hamood wants Amisom’s operational strategy to “be more flexible so that they can be deployed anywhere at any time as a matter of urgency.”

Rather than equip a bigger Amisom force, the partners, mainly the United Nations, favour a smaller peacekeeping operation.

Under pressure from the troop contributing countries, the UN has agreed to increase the force, which since 2007 has progressively grown to slightly over 22,000, from 8,000 troops. 

Cohesion around force size has been a thorny issue; Amisom’s partners preferred a small operation bolstered by force-multipliers like attack helicopters and other military hardware, but these have not been put in place.

A European Union official who attended the Kampala retreat told The EastAfrican that in its present state, Somalia needs more resources and donors. Through its African Peace Facility, the EU is the single largest source of Amisom salaries, sending about €20 million ($24 million) monthly.

“This is the biggest cash contribution from the EU to any peacekeeping mission in the world. Is it enough? It pays the troops allowances, but right now the Amisom needs more than allowances,” the official said.

In addition, through the European Union Training Mission for Somalia, the EU also funds the training of the Somali army — nearly half of SNA’s 20,000 soldiers have passed through this training mission.

But while EU funding has been coming through, countries with troops in Somalia blame the AU for not pushing the United Nations for compensation for equipment and soldiers lost in the war. Compensation for each soldier killed in combat is $50,000. 

“Welfare is not just for the soldiers alone, but their families and the troop contributing countries. Of the 94 soldiers that we have lost, their families have not been compensated for three years now. Where is the $50,000 that the AU Commission promised?

“The AU must get stronger in leading us in this mission. There are things they should be doing, but they are not,” said Dr Kiyonga, adding that the troops’ morale while in combat is critical for the success of operations to liberate other areas of Somalia.

The UN funds Amisom equipment and compensation of troops killed on mission.