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RELATIVE calm prevailed in the Somali capital Mogadishu yesterday after days of fierce fighting between Ethiopian-backed government forces and insurgents, which killed at least 24 people.

Meanwhile, the bodies of 11 Russians were recovered from the wreckage of the plane that exploded in mid-air on Friday afternoon. Capt. Paddy Ankunda, the spokesman for the African Union (AU) peacekeepers who control the airport, said it was too early to tell what caused the crash.



But the government of Belarus said its plane was hit by a missile, according to Reuters. “The plane was shot down,” transport ministry spokeswoman Kseniya Perestoronina said in Minsk. She added that the large Ilyushin plane, in Somalia to assist the AU peacekeepers, was hit at a height of 150 metres.

The plane had carried engineers and equipment to repair another aircraft, carrying Ugandan soldiers and equipment, which caught fire during landing on March 9.

The crew and the Ugandans came out unharmed but some armoured personnel carriers are reportedly still stuck in the back of the plane. The AU is investigating the incident but the government of Belarus announced the plane had been hit by a mortar.

In the midst of the heat, the Ugandan soldiers are upbeat about the task in hand, as they also set about winning over the hearts and minds of local people.

As the vanguard of the planned 8,000-strong AU force, known as AMISOM, the 1,500 Ugandan troops have set up their headquarters in the ruins of a Mogadishu villa.

Inside to the hum of crackling radios, shouting and walking about, staff officers have moved into windswept rooms equipped with a few pieces of plastic furniture. “We are still settling down. We are lacking means but we are doing our best to implement our mandate,” the commander of the AU peacekeeping force in Somalia General Levi Karuhanga told the reporter of the French press agency AFP.

“Our mandate is to provide support and assistance to the TFG (Somali Transitional Government) to enable it to rebuild Somalia and to carry out the reconciliation process.”

At their camp near the city’s international airport, dozens of khaki tents have been erected while machetes are used to clear the immense compound and sandbags are piled up on the principle routes.

For the soldiers’ relaxation, a television has been hooked up to a satellite antenna in a large building where sandbags provide the office wall and stones improvise to serve as seats.

“We are buying our supplies from local suppliers and we are cooking here. We are still receiving some equipment and step by step we are settling down,” Captain Ankunda said.

Faced with cases of malaria and acute diarrhoea among the troops, a field hospital was quickly set up, which has also proven a way of reaching out to the local population.

“We receive civilians too suffering from cholera, as our soldiers,” said army doctor Joseph Sabila.

“The problem comes from water that is contaminated. Now we see the number of cases decreasing among our men because we received a filtering machine.”

For the Ugandan soldiers, it is important to step up direct contact with local people.

Several Islamist leaders who controlled parts of the country until the end of last year before being defeated by the Ethiopian-backed Somali government had vowed to attack foreigners.

“Now that we have treated some people, the word is spreading that we are not nasty or dangerous and the people are coming,” Captain Ambrose Oiko, of the health services, said.

After two days of clashes this week, the Ugandan troops prepared a convoy of armoured vehicles for its first venture into the centre of Mogadishu, where fierce fighting raged for three straight days.

AU peacekeepers have taken up position at the notorious but strategic K4 junction in southern Mogadishu, and control the port, airport and government headquarters.

“From here we will organise patrols and steadily spread out to all the areas of the town and secure it. But we need to receive the whole force to do so,” operations’ commander Colonel Peter Elwelu said. Among the Ugandan troops are 40 women.

One is 23-year-old Lieutenant Winnie Nyakwera Baguma, who is hardly visible atop her tank, which becomes a throbbing mass of tonnes of steel as the tracks start moving.

“I’m a pioneer, I’m the first woman in the whole Ugandan army to become tank team leader,” she said proudly. “I’m also the first one in my family to have entered the army.”

Asked about the Soviet-made T-55 tank, this petit woman clad in a camouflage helmet said: “I like it because they are combative vehicles, they are the support of infantry in battles.

“And the tank is the king of jungle.”
Their bosses in Kampala, too, are optimistic about the operation. In a press conference on Saturday, defence minister Crispus Kiyonga blasted the media for what he described as portraying the situation in Mogadishu in an alarmist way.

“Those who wish our troops bad luck have been issuing very negative speculations about the forces,” he said. “They (Ugandan public) should disregard those fabrications and treat them with the contempt they deserve.”

Kiyonga emphasised that the UPDF was in Somalia on a pan-African mission to assist “our brothers and sisters in long troubled Somalia.”

The Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, added: “Our troops have the full support of the majority of the Somali people. After 16 years of statelessness in Somalia, the situation is under control.”

President Yoweri Museveni, while receiving a UN delegation on Friday, said efforts were being made to reach out to all the parties in Somalia.

He called on the UN to support the transitional government, encourage dialogue among the warring Somali groups and maintain an all-inclusive approach to the peace initiatives.

Source: The New Vision, Mar 25, 2007