UPDF silent on Somalia casualties

Written by Gaaki Kigambo

Wednesday, 09 March 2011 21:30

The army remains tight-lipped on the actual number of Ugandan soldiers serving on the peacekeeping mission in Somalia who died or were injured in fighting that lasted the whole of February, with the fiercest battles being in the second half of that month. Different sources are claiming that more than 50 peacekeeping soldiers might have died and scores of others gravely injured as they tried to clear a network of urban trenches and tunnels that Al-Shabaab militants had been using. The Islamist insurgents, who are fighting to overthrow Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG), were using the routes for resupply and infiltration of AMISOM and TFG positions, and also to capture the former ministry of Defence buildings and a former milk factory nearby. These two positions, a press statement states, previously served as Al-Shabaab’s major operational and logistical bases, and allowed the extremists to dominate the northern areas of the city. “By taking these positions, we have effectively reduced their freedom of manoeuvre in that sector,” the statement says. The Force Commander, Maj Gen Nathan Mugisha, in a press briefing in Nairobi last Saturday, March 5, said while AMISOM had sustained “some losses”, for security and operational reasons, the figures had been forwarded to the troop-contributing countries which, he hoped, would inform the families of the deceased ahead of the media, as is standard practice. “It is important that such sensitive situations are handled with care and control, and not dictated by the media,” Mugisha told journalists. Yet, two weeks on now, it is unclear whether the army here has informed the families of the dead. What is also unclear is the total number of casualties. Army spokesperson, Lt Col Felix Kulayigye, has not been forthcoming. When The Observer contacted him on Monday, March 7, he said he had neither received any communication from the AMISOM Force Commander, nor read the press statement. A relative of Michael Muhumuza, one of the soldiers who reportedly died between February 19 and 23, was quoted in Daily Monitor on March 7 as having said that they found out about his death from photographs posted on the Internet. On contacting the army, the family were told that Muhumuza was one of those “missing in action”, a military term that could mean that a soldier is dead or captured. Uganda and Burundi remain the only countries to have sent troops to shore up Somalia’s transitional government four years since the African Union constituted AMISOM. Last year, Djibouti and Guinea promised to join them, and Algeria promised to transport Guinean forces to Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital. These promises, however, have not come through. An increase in troops, it was hoped, would enable AMISOM extend its military positions and effectively hold off Al-Shabaab’s mortar assaults. Much more than that, it would help government forces expand territory under its control, as currently Al-Shabaab controls large chunks of Mogadishu. But, a recent in-depth report on Somalia by the International Crisis Group (ICG) doubts the long-term viability of increasing the number of AMISOM troops on the ground in the absence of a clear political strategy for holding and stabilising the newly captured areas. Rather, it suggests prioritising recruitment and coordination of the security forces of allied local administrations. “Some clan elders may be secretly supportive, but without adequate political preparation, assumptions of a groundswell of support for the invasion in the south may turn out to be overly optimistic, notwithstanding that Al-Shabaab is increasingly unpopular,” the report reads. “As history demonstrates, Somalis tend to reject foreign military interventions, even those that may, potentially, be best for their long-term interest.” The report made a scathing attack on the TFG, calling it a “caricature of a government” that is “inept, increasingly corrupt and hobbled by President Sharif’s weak leadership”. gaaki@observer.ug This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Set as favorite Bookmark Email This Hits: 1087 Comments (5) Subscribe to this comment's feed Show/Hide comments