ROW OVER AFRICA PEACEKEEPER MONEY !

African Union troops have still not deployed onto the streets. The African Union (AU) has defended its method of funding peacekeeping forces following complaints from the Ugandan peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
The Ugandan army, which arrived in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in March, says it has not received money promised to it by the AU since its deployment.
An AU spokesman told the BBC that peace troops had to sustain themselves, after which the AU would reimburse them.
Assnae Ba said the AU so far had pledges of $35m to fund the mission.
But some $200m was needed to fund a six month deployment of 8,000 troops to Somalia.
So far however, only some 1,700 Ugandan troops are in Mogadishu as the advance party.
Burundi, which is expected to provide 1,700 troops, says they are ready to leave, but there is no money to send them.

AU FORCE IN SOMALIA

Uganda: 1,700
Nigeria: 850
Burundi: 1,700
Ghana: unconfirmed

Q&A: Somali conflict

"Of course ther are some delays in the sense that we just signed an agreement with the European Union which have pledged 15m euros (about $20m) around 10 days ago," Mr Ba, spokesperson for the AU's department for peace and security, told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
He said Italy had pledged a further 10m euros ($13.5m), but he hoped for more money.
"We don't have all the troops on the ground so we can't talk of a shortfall," he said.
The African peacekeepers are intended to replace Ethiopian troops which helped the interim government oust Islamists in December.
The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) had ruled much of southern Somalia for six months last year.

BBC NEWS REPORT.