Keeping the Peace
Ugandan troops form an integral part of the peacekeeping efforts in Africa
when Uganda sent its troops to Somalia to keep peace in the war-torn country in East Africa in March 2007, many locals considered the move would backfire miserably.
But the Ugandan armed forces proved their critics wrong and showed their mettle, going on to successfully execute peacekeeping missions not only in Somalia, but also in other countries in the region.
Uganda currently has the most African Union (AU) peacekeepers in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), with 6,223 soldiers deployed in the country, followed by Burundi (5,432), Ethiopia (4,395), Kenya (3,664) and Djibouti (2,000) according to a recent AMISOM report. Uganda has lost 110 soldiers in the conflict in Somalia at the time of writing.
Despite initial criticism, Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni insisted that he was sending the troops for the good of the region’s security. “If we leave such chaos to continue in Somalia, in the long run, fighting could spread to neighboring countries,” said Museveni. He argued that a destabilized Somalia could be used as a base by militants to attack countries surrounding Somalia.
Even though Somali militia had embarrassed the U.S. elite forces by scoring victories over their troops in 1993, during one of the U.S.’S most high-profile intervention failures in Africa, on March 1, 2007, Museveni authorized a battalion of Uganda’s Peoples Defense Force (UPDF) soldiers to head for Somalia.
Museveni told the troops that Ugandan and other foreign forces were being sent to help restore peace in the war-torn Horn of Africa country. “African countries should cooperate in order to solve their own problems,” he said at the time.
UN approval
Before Uganda sent troops to Somalia, a trade bloc of eight regional countries with