Bruised UPDF sends Lt Gen Muhanga to Somalia after Al Shabaab attack left 137 Ugandan soldiers killed
In a statement issued Saturday morning, Brig Gen Felix Kulayigye, the UPDF spokesperson said Muhanga has also been tasked to devise a way forward.
The Commander Land Force, Lt Gen Kayanja Muhanga has been dispatched to Somalia to ascertain circumstances underwhich Al Shabaab, a terrorist group, managed to attack a Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) base and killed almost 130 Ugandan soldiers.
In a statement issued Saturday morning, Brig Gen Felix Kulayigye, the UPDF spokesperson said Muhanga has also been tasked to devise a way forward.
“UPDF condemns the attack on her gallant by Al Shabaab terrorists, nonetheless, this will not deter our commitment to ATMIS mandate of ensuring African peace and stability,” Kulayigye said.
On Friday, Islamist al Shabaab militants attacked a military base housing Ugandan forces operating under African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) in Bulamarer, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu.
ATMIS is assisting Somalia’s federal government in its conflict with al Shabaab.
ATMIS later said in a statement that al Shabaab had hit the base using car and suicide bombers, and that airborne reinforcement from the mission and its allies destroyed the militants’ weaponry as they withdrew.
The terror group issued a statement which was later published by its affiliate media, claiming that at least 137 soldiers were killed in action
They further claimed that they have also taken the UPDF survivors as prisoners, and captured several weapons including military attacks
