By Lamin Njie
Some Gambian troops who are currently on a UN-backed peacekeeping mission in Darfur have accused the leadership of the Gambia Armed Forces of theft.
The soldiers who reached out to The Fatu Network on Friday claim the United Nations pays each Gambian soldier up to two million dalasis in 12 months – of which they say the government gives them a ‘mere D500, 000’. The clearly unhappy soldiers pointed a finger of blame at the army leadership saying ‘they are eating blood money.’
Reacting to the accusations Friday, the spokesman of the Gambia Armed Forces Lt Colonel Omar Bojang said the allegations of the army leadership stealing troops’ money are not true.
He said: “This is not true. Basically this amount [sic] is being maintained by the Ministry of Finance. So if we want to withdraw any amount, we have to write to the Ministry of Defence. So we have to seek approval for us to touch that money. So the money cannot be easily diverted and be put into private coffers. That’s not true. That’s an allegation that is not true and our leadership is very concerned.”
The army spokesman however agrees that the army makes certain mandatory deductions.
“The money being deducted is used to buy equipment, to buy uniforms and to buy even rations because troops before they are deployed are normally given departure allowance. That departure allowance cannot come from the government,” he said.
According to Bojang, the “United Nations does not have a standby force, they rely on countries to send their troops and The Gambia being part of the UN normally send troops as part of the troop contributing countries.”
“And the UN does not have weapons. It’s the countries that provide those weapons and equipment,” he said.
The highest the United Nations pays to any peacekeeping soldier every month is $1,400. That’s approximately D70, 000 and most Gambians troops who go for peacekeeping missions spend between 6 months and one year.
Army spokesman Bojang said “maintaining soldiers is very expensive and that this is why we use certain money to purchase our uniform, to buy some of our vehicles and also other operational logistics.”
He said: “The Gambia Armed Forces before normally deducts about 30 percent from the payment of the soldiers… When the new government came, they decided to reduce that to 10 percent and 90 percent is given back to the soldiers.”
