Katumba decorate AU troops in Somalia

Gen. Katumba Wamala (right) decorates a UPDF soldier in recognition of his contribution to peace mission

THE Commander of the Land Forces, Lt. Gen. Katumba Wamala, is in Somalia to inspect the positions of the Ugandan soldiers taking part in the Africa Union peacekeeping mission, dubbed AMISOM. In a bid to boost the morale of the 3,000 strong UPDF contingent in the extremely volatile capital Mogadishu, Katumba decorated 500 soldiers with medals in recognition of their role in the peace keeping mission. Katumba also met the Somali police boss and the newly-elected Somali president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. The meeting was attended by Somalia’s army chief Abdi Karim, Uganda’s defence attaché in Addis Ababa, Col. Emmanuel Musinguzi, and the Ugandan contingent commander Col. Jack Bakasumba. In the worst fighting for months, government forces have been battling al Shabaab fighters in the capital Mogadishu in recent weeks, with scores killed and tens of thousands of refugees streaming out of the city. Al Shabaab, which is suspected to have links with al-Qaeda, has imposed strict sharia law on Kismayu and other towns it controls in south Somalia. It bans drinking, films, wedding parties and music, and punishes suspected government collaborators, sometimes by beheading. Though witnesses say al-Shabaab has foreign fighters in its ranks, the group insists it is fighting for Somalia’s sovereignty and against a government it portrays as Western-imposed. President Yoweri Museveni and his Burundian counterpart, Pierre Nkurunziza, on Friday said they were willing to send more troops to Somalia if asked by the African Union. The Islamists have often described the peace keeping mission as an invasion by foreigners and repeatedly demanded the departure of the Ugandan and Burundian troops. Meanwhile, AMISOM has hired a private South African company, Bancroft Global Development, to deploy sniffer dogs and train their handlers to detect explosive bomb or car bombs which the Islamists use to target the peace keepers. David Schoman, a Bancroft expert, said the same breeds, Labradors and German shepherds, are used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the first Ugandan contingent arrived in Mogadishu in March 2007, the most deadly weapon used by the insurgents against the peacekeepers has been improvised explosive devices. In February, a suicide car bombing targeting Burundian troops killed 11 people, including the two bombers. “We have understood that with the Somalis, there can be no friends. So now, not a single Somali enters the camp, not a single car,” said Gen. Prime Niyongabo, the commander of the Burundian contingent. AMISOM spokesman Maj. Ba-hoku Barigye explained that hiring Bancroft was necessary to avoid unnecessary losses. “The Ugandan army doesn’t have any experience with improvised explosive devices, so when we were confronted with that scourge, we had to find ..