Uganda to pull troops out of Somalia
Uganda will tell the UN it is withdrawing its forces from military operations in Somalia and other regional hotspots after the world body accused it of supporting Congolese rebels, the security minister said on Friday.
Minister Wilson Mukasa said the decision was irreversible and another cabinet minister was travelling to New York to explain its position to the UN.
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Ugandan troops account for more than a third of the 17,600 UN-mandated African peacekeepers battling al-Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels in Somalia and their withdrawal could hand an advantage to al Shabaab.
Its soldiers, backed by US special forces, are also leading the hunt for fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony in Central African Republic, with some stationed in South Sudan.
In a leaked report, a UN panel of experts last month accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the so-called M23 rebel group commanded by Bosco Ntaganda, a warlord indicted by the International Criminal Court nicknamed “the Terminator”.
Mr Mukasa said Uganda would withdraw from Somalia, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo to concentrate on domestic security.
“We are tired of being maligned even after sacrifices have been made to ensure that our friends, our neighbours are UK. The ‘thank you’ we get is that you are now aiding this, you are this and that, so we are tired,” he told reporters in Kampala.
Felix Kulayigye, a Ugandan army spokesman, said the military had received no orders yet but was ready to act when it did.
“We’ll not stay an extra day in Somalia when we get that order,” he said.
The African force has been vital to propping up a string of interim governments in Somalia and driving al Shabaab militants from all their urban strongholds over the past 15 months, including the capital, Mogadishu, and southern port of Kismayu.
A sudden reduction in its numbers, especially in Mogadishu, would risk unravelling the security gains that allowed the first presidential elections in more than 40 years to be held in the capital in September.
Somalia’s poorly equipped and ill-disciplined army is more a loose affiliation of rival militias than a cohesive fighting force loyal to a single president.
Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the spokesman for al Shabaab’s military operation, said it was unaware of Uganda’s intention to withdraw it would keep fighting the African peacekeepers.
“After Ugandans leave, what else, it will be easier to fight the remaining invaders. We shall finish them,” he told Reuters.
Uganda has earned significant western support for deploying its soldiers to a war zone few foreign powers outside the region have the stomach for.
It also benefits financially for its AMISOM contribution while at the same time a troop presence in Somalia, Central African Republic and South Sudan gives the Ugandan military a big footprint across the region.
“It’s just politics and playing to the gallery. They won’t pull out. Things will be quietly settled behind closed doors with perhaps future reports not being so critical,” said Hamza Mohamed, a London-based Somali analyst.
The confidential 44-page report by the UN Security Council’s Group of Experts, a body that monitors compliance with the UN sanctions and arms embargo in place for Congo, said M23 has expanded territory under its control, stepped up recruitment of child soldiers and summarily executed recruits and prisoners.
The report said Rwandan officials co-ordinated the setting up of the rebel movement as well as its military operations. Uganda’s more subtle support to M23 allowed its political branch to operate from within Kampala.
Uganda and Rwanda have repeatedly denied the accusations.
It would be great news for the muslims and sad news for their servants.
I really hope Ugandans, Burundis, Djiboutians, Kenyans and Ethiopians leave our land in humiliation.
