Somali mother looks for her Ugandan lover
By Patrick Jaramogi
A Somali mother is in Kampala looking for a UPDF soldier who she says fathered her four-month-old baby-boy. The 23-year-old Nino Ulusow Ibrahim arrived five days ago after a one-week journey from war-torn Somalia.
The situation back home, she said, had forced her to search for the father of her son who was one of the 1,600 Ugandan peace-keepers deployed in Mogadishu.
“I met him when I took my father, Sheik Ulusow Ibrahim, for treatment at the AMISOM hospital in Mogadishu,” said the frail-looking Nino.
While she searches for the soldier, Nino has taken refuge in Kisenyi, the Kampala slum which has most Somali refugees.
“I love the father of my boy. All I need is to get in touch with him for assistance. I need him that is why I came. My child is a Ugandan,” she said.
Under Islamic law, which operates in some parts of Somalia, a woman may be killed for having sex out of wedlock.
Nino, who says she gets help from Hussein Hassan, the chairman of the Somali community here, wants the UPDF to help her.
Army spokesman Maj. Paddy Ankunda, who met Nino at his Mbuya offices on Friday, promised to help. He identified the officer as Joshua Asiza, a medical worker.
“We want him to take responsibility and take care of the boy and the mother. They need help,” Ankunda said. “If he denies responsibility, that will be another matter.”
Ankunda would not say what sentence or charges the officer would face if he declined to take responsibility. But he added that if Asiza fathered the child, he breached the army code of conduct.
“We have guidelines to follow while on a peace mission especially abroad. In the UPDF, we don’t condone indiscipline.”
Asiza, a Warrant Officer II, was part of the first batch of the African Union peace-keeping force in the war-torn Somalia.
President Museveni had warned the officers to desist from “immoral acts”.
Meeting them in Kimaka, Jinja, before their departure, Museveni said: “You are leaving while healthy. Don’t go and start irresponsible behaviour that will see you contract HIV/AIDS.”
During the UPDF mission in DR Congo, many Congolese women, along with children, followed the officers back to Uganda after the mission ended.
Many settled down with the soldiers as married couples.
