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The 26th Day of May will remain a dark day to Ugandans and the UPDF fraternity as soldiers on under the African Transition Mission to Somalia (ATMIS) were ambushed by the Al-Shabaab militants at their base in Buulo-Mareer located almost 120km away from the capital Mogadishu.
After the attack, the militants claimed that they had killed 137 UPDF soldiers, injured many and took scores as captives. This caused tension and panic among Ugandans especially relatives of those who are soldiers under ATMIS.
UPDF back in Uganda quickly sent the commander land forces Lt Gen Kayanja Muhanga to the frontlines in Somalia on a fact finding mission to establish the cause of the attack and any information that would be important to get facts right.
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Since the Commander Land Forces Muhanga left for Somalia, neither ATMIS nor UPDF had come out clear on the number of causalities.
President Museveni who is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces has revealed the actual number of the soldiers killed by the Al-Shabaab. According to president Museveni, 54 soldiers including a commander were killed by the militants who have maintained war against the Somali government and fighting against soldiers fetched from different countries since 2007.
Museveni was responding to pertinent issues raised by the NRM members of parliament who’ve been to Kyankwanzi for a retreat where Museveni has held quite a number of engagements with them.
“Our soldiers demonstrated remarkable resilience and reorganized themselves, resulting in the recapture of the base. We discovered the lifeless bodies of fifty four fallen soldiers, including a commander”-revealed Museveni
This is the biggest number of soldiers, UPDF is losing in missions to Somalia since deploying in 2007. Al-Shabaab has done several attacks on Ugandan soldiers since 2007 and they also attacked Ugandans back home when they blew off 2 bombs in Kabalagala and Kyadondo rugby grounds in 2010 during the World Cup finals. This attack which they claimed responsibility took lives of over 74 people and injured many.
Before responding to very pertinent questions raised by members of the NRM parliamentary caucus, I updated them on the incident in Somalia.
Our soldiers demonstrated remarkable resilience and reorganized themselves, resulting in the recapture of the base.
We discovered the… pic.twitter.com/J3EOVKYZkg— Yoweri K Museveni (@KagutaMuseveni) June 3, 2023
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