The Chief of Defence
Forces, Gen David Muhoozi, has said Ugandan soldiers deployed in Somalia to fight
the al-Shabaab are stranded due to underfunding, logistical deficits and a
challenged Somali national force.
In an interview with this
newspaper last Thursday, Gen Muhoozi said UPDF has as a result collapsed some
of its forward operating bases to consolidate defensive strength and cannot
launch attacks against al-Shabaab.
"It has now implied
that we cannot defend what we already have and neither can we effectively
offend the enemy to degrade [its] capacity. That is the dilemma we are in and
that is why the TCCs (Troop Contributing Countries) met to put across the
concerns of the mission, so that with the international partners, we can find a
way forward," he said.
Uganda was first to deploy
in Somalia in March 2007 and still has the largest number of soldiers in the
22,000-strong African Union Peacekeeping Mission (Amisom). Other troop
contributors include Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.
Presidents, military and
technical leaders from the TCCs, together with donors, met in Kampala in
February to iron out the teething problems hamstringing Amisom operations.
While opening that meeting,
Uganda's Foreign Affairs ministry permanent secretary Patrick Mugoya noted:
"The international community recognises the role of all Amisom Troop
Contributing Countries in stabilising Somalia, although the support from them
is not commensurate with the task at hand."
Earlier concerns
The high-level summit was
held months after President Museveni in September 2017 offered to send an
additional 5,000 troops as long as funding and logistical support were
guaranteed.
The United Nations Security
Council instead voted to have foreign troops in Somalia draw down their forces
in calculations to hand the Horn of Africa's country's security management to
its national forces.
That Somali army, Uganda's
Chief of Defence Forces said during last week's interview, has no capacity as
of now to even hold areas already captured by Amisom troops.
Asked if his meant that the
UPDF is stuck in Somalia, Gen Muhoozi spoke of a "mismatch between what we
want to do and what we have. That's why we are talking about reviewing our
operations."
"Our ambition was
bigger than the troops we had," he said, "you find that you have
moved forward but your rear is insecure; it is vulnerable because there are no
holding forces which ideally should be coming from the Somali."
Risks
He added: "As you take
supplies because you are road-bound, you are predictable. The enemy's weapon of
choice are Improvised Explosive Devices that degrade your vehicles and manpower
every day. So we are looking at all sorts of ways that can minimise attrition
on those things that are avoidable."
The CDF said Amisom troops
would be safer and more effective at the frontline with air mobility and force
multipliers such as attack helicopters as well as guaranteed funding and
logistical supplies.
"...the mission is
underfunded, expectations are high but not matched by the support to achieve
those expectations especially the resources to do the job and do it quickly. It
was exacerbated by the recent drawdown by the UN Security Council," he
said.
In the interview, the army
chief also spoke about what he said was the growing threat from the Allied
Democratic Forces (ADF), a decimated Lord's Resistance Army group that has
turned into localised criminal enterprise in eastern DR Congo and Central
African Republic and UPDF's massing of troops at the border to counter the
menace of South Sudan's military and rebels.
Challenges
Concerns. Asked if his
meant that the UPDF is stuck in Somalia, Gen Muhoozi spoke of a "mismatch
between what we want to do and what we have. That's why we are talking about
reviewing our operations". "Our ambition was bigger than the troops
we had," he said, "you find that you have moved forward but your rear
is insecure; it is vulnerable because there are no holding forces which ideally
should be coming from the Somalis."
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