Unpaid Somali soldiers desert to insurgency

By KATHARINE HOURELD
Associated Press
April 28, 2010

In this Thursday, March 11, 2010 photo, Somali government soldiers cross the street during heavy fighting against Islamist insurgents in northern Mogadishu.

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Hundreds of Somali soldiers trained with millions of U.S. tax dollars have deserted because they are not being paid their $100 monthly wage, and some have even joined the al-Qaida-linked militants they are supposed to be fighting, The Associated Press has learned.

The desertions raise fears that a new U.S.-backed effort beginning next month to build up Somalia's army may only increase the ranks of the insurgency.

Somalia's besieged U.N.-backed government holds only a few blocks of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, while Islamic insurgents control the rest of the city and most of the country. That turmoil — and the lawless East African nation's proximity to Yemen, where al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is based — has fed fears that Somalia could be used to launch attacks on the West.

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