Ugandan troops to fight back if attacked

The Ugandan military has dismissed threats by Somali insurgentseven after it came under an attack, saying it will not withdraw its peacekeeping troops from the war-ravaged country’s capital, Mogadishu.

The military also sought to allay fears that it would pull out of Somalia if attacked afresh. An attack by the insurgents was repulsed by Ugandan forces just over a week ago.

Lt-Gen Katumba Wamala, the Commander of the Uganda People’s Defence Force’s land forces, told The EastAfrican in Kampala that the Ugandan troops would defend their positions if attacked.

“It is not the first time such a threat has been made. We are in Somalia for a cause and shall remain focused,” said Lt-Gen Wamala. “We shall however take note of the threat and prepare ourselves to respond accordingly if attacked; the mandate provides that we protect ourselves.”

The Uganda government justifies its decision to deploy in Somalia as a means to end small arms proliferation in the unstable Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda. “There is a clear nexus between an unstable Somalia and small arms proliferation in Karamoja,” Crispus Kiyonga, Uganda’s Minister for Defence, told parliament in June.

The leader of the Somali insurgent Al-Shabab group, Sheikh Aden Hashi Ayrow, last week ordered his fighters to attack African Union troops based in Mogadishu. He also asked other fighters to join him in what he called “the war against the foreign forces” in an audio clip posted on Somali websites.

Sheikh Ayrow said it was an obligation for all Muslims in Somalia to wage war against Ethiopian and Ugandan forces.

“To us the Ugandans, Ethiopians and Americans are all the same; they have invaded us and I am telling the Mujahidin [fighters], Ugandans must be one of our priorities,” the BBC quoted Sheikh Ayrow as having said in the audio on the Dayniile website.

The insurgents have been targeting government and Ethiopian troops but are yet to launch attacks on Ugandan soldiers. Al-Shabab is the militant wing of the Union of Islamic Courts that controlled Mogadishu for six months in 2006 before being ousted by Ethiopian troops.

The Transitional Federal Government’s soldiers and Ethiopian troops have been conducting door-to-door searches for insurgents in the capital over the past weeks, sparking deadly clashes.

President Abdullahi Yusuf blames the insurgents for the recent violence that has displaced thousands of Mogadishu residents and caused a humanitarian crisis in the country.

Uganda has 1,600 soldiers in Somalia as the vanguard of the planned 8,000-strong AU peacekeeping mission. Ghana, Nigeria and Burundi were among the African countries that pledged to send peacekeeping troops to the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) but have so far backtracked on their promises.

Uganda is charged with the overall command of the entire peacekeeping mission in Somalia. The government is also training an additional 250 troops to be deployed in Somalia early next year.

Though trained by the French and the British, it is believed that the Ugandan troops are both numerically and professionally inadequate for the mission. The AU has struggled to raise 8,000 troops it wants to send to Somalia to replace Ethiopian soldiers, who are supposed to withdraw from the country.

The UN first announced in June that it would not be able to take over the mandate from AU peacekeepers as had been planned until a later date. However, last week UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon ruled out plans to deploy peacekeepers to Somalia, saying it was not a viable option.

In the absence of a strong peace-enforcement contingent, the only solution would appear to be robust diplomacy aimed at stabilising the Somali situation by a power-sharing arrangement between the TFG and the insurgent groups. The UN and the AU, as well as the US, however, have their hands full with even more pressing regional matters, such as Darfur.

While Yemen and the Arab League have made attempts in the past three months to facilitate dialogue, they are not likely to have the influence to broker a sustainable deal.

Lt-Gen Wamala however said that the Ugandan troops in Mogadishu were still pushing for dialogue between the TFG and insurgents. Without giving names, he said some of the militia groups had respondent positively to the suggestion that they have dialogue and others are promising to do so.

Amisom has since April embarked on dialogue with some of the insurgent groups, hoping that they will eventually agree to negotiations with Abdullahi’s government.

The United Nations says some 170,000 people have fled the violence, with hundreds others injured in the crossfire.

Amisom is mandated to conduct a peace support operation in Somalia, provide support to President Abdullahi’s government in its effort to stabilise the country and furtherof dialogue while facilitating the provision of humanitarian assistance.