The Burundian government has instructed its Foreign and Defence Ministries to start the withdrawal of its troops from the African Union (AU) force fighting militants in Somalia. The withdrawal threat largely over the non payment of troops was made months back. Burundi is the second largest contributor to AMISOM the AU intervention force fighting al-Shabab insurgents in Somalia. Ethiopia have flatly denied that the withdrawal of troops funded by their government is linked to internal anti-government crisis. AMISOM troop contributing countries include Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

Source: Ethiopian News January 16, 2017 14:19 UTC