By Els De Temmerman
Monday, January 28, 2008
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Ugandan troops leave their base at the airport in Mogadishu. Five Ugandan peacekeepers have been wounded since Saturday |
“A mortar was thrown at our defence at around 1:00pm,” said AU spokesman, Maj. Ba-Hoku Barigye.
“It came from some two kilometers away. Three soldiers, two Ugandans and one Burundian, sustained injuries from shrapnel.”
The attack brings to five the number of Ugandans injured in Mogadishu in just two days. On Saturday, an armoured vehicle on patrol hit an anti-tank mine near the sea port, wounding three.
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The incidents are a bad start for the new Ugandan contingent of 1,600 soldiers, which relieved their colleagues last week. Until Burundi joined in a month ago, Uganda had been the only country contributing troops to AMISOM, the AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
Even replacing the soldiers was a hazardous operation. A deadly silence filled the packed belly of the Hercules of the Ugandan Air Force as it was preparing to land on Wednesday.
“We cannot fly over the city for fear of missile attacks,” explained the pilot as we skimmed the golden coast line.
“We have to hover over the Indian Ocean until the control tower gives us the go-ahead. Prior to our coming, Ugandans in patrol boats have cleared the sea.”
The precautionary measures are more than necessary in Mogadishu, considered one of the most dangerous cities on earth.
In March last year, two Russian aircrafts, carrying equipment for the Ugandan contingent, were hit by rocket-propelled grenades as they were landing, killing 11 crew members.
A thunderous applause erupted when the C130 hit the ground. Engines kept on running as the new soldiers filed out and the old ones filed in. For security reasons, the plane has to take off within five minutes of landing.
The newcomers, sweating under their bullet-proof jackets and helmets, were quickly taken to their tents, pitched in sand dunes along the sea.
Life in Mogadishu is harsh for the Ugandans. The climate is murderous. Temperatures inside the tents reach 50 degrees. Fierce gusts of wind sweep up the sand and the dust, blinding the view.
But worse is the insecurity and isolation. A total of five mortars were fired at the airport in the past five days. Going into town for a meal, a drink or just a stroll is simply unthinkable.
Movement is restricted to the airport. Trips to the seaport, the ‘K4’ junction four kilometres from the airport, or Villa Somalia, the presidential palace, can only be made in armoured vehicles.
Despite the hostile environment and cruel circumstances, the Ugandans are committed and proud to serve their fellow Africans.
“We have created a spring base for other countries to deploy. That is why Burundi has now come in”, Maj. Barigye summed up their achievements of almost one year in Somalia.
“We have also facilitated all belligerent parties to talk during the national reconciliation conference in July and August, the first to be held inside Somalia.”
Truthful to its mandate, the AU force has also protected key government installations, the airport, the seaport and the presidential palace.
“On average six to eight flights are now coming in a day. And 171 ships have docked since our deployment, twice as many as before”, said Barigye.
But the Ugandans have done much more than they were supposed to.
In the face of a major humanitarian disaster unfolding, with thousands killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by the fighting, they provided assistance to the injured, sick and homeless.
Dr. Asea proudly showed us around his impressive medical and surgical unit, a dozen tents in the desert, where on average 350 patients are being treated per day.
“The most common complaints are gunshot wounds, shrapnel injuries, diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition,” he explained.
In his make-shit theatre, under rudimentary conditions, he and his colleagues have carried out almost 400 operations in the past year, mostly removing bullets. Five were going to be operated the day of our visit.
Ugandan doctors and nurses have also been dispatched to Medina Hospital, the only operational hospital in the city. And during the worst of the fighting, the peacekeepers distributed water to the displaced.
“The Ugandans have outdone all expectations”, said the Somali deputy prime minister, Ahmed Abdi Salam Aden.
“By distributing water to the displaced and running a hospital with their limited resources, they have shown that they care.”
He recalled the popular outcry when a roadside bomb killed four Ugandan peacekeepers last May. “People were very angry. They asked: Why? What’s the point of targeting the Ugandans when they have come to help us?’”
But the greatest frustration for the Ugandan contingent is being incapable of stopping the insecurity and violence.
“We have not been able to cover the rest of the capital because of our limited numbers”, said the AU force commander, Maj. Gen. Levi Karuhanga, in his modest office in the damaged AU headquarters.
“If I could get the manpower, an 8,000 strong force, I would extend security to the southern sector and gradually roll out to the other sectors of the city.”
Ghana and Nigeria had expressed willingness to contribute, he asserted, but no timeframe or numbers had been communicated. He reckons he would need 20,000 troops to secure the whole country.
Gen. Karuhanga blames the international community for not providing sufficient support to the operation.
“Other countries have delayed deploying because of logistical and financial constraints”, he said. “The Burundians were ready since August but there was nobody to airlift them.”
The going had not been smooth, the force commander conceded, citing the attacks on their planes and soldiers as his worst moments.
“Our plane was hit early in the operation, reducing our pace of deployment. That was a major setback. The provocations and attacks, when AMISOM lost five soldiers, were also difficult.”
The long-term solution lies in dialogue and reconciliation among the Somalis, he concluded, and a greater commitment from the international community.
“Somalia seems to have been forgotten,” he said with a sigh before rushing us to the plane which had just delivered the last batch of fresh soldiers, its engines still running.
Source: New Vision, Jan 28, 2008