The army has passed out a new battalion comprising of 3,237 specially
trained troops for deployment against the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab
terrorists in the war-torn Somalia.
UPDF soldiers from Battle Group 10 carry out military exercises during a pass out ceremony at Singo
This will be Uganda’s 10th
battle group to be deployed in Somalia since the inception of the
African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) in 2007.
The battle group 10 will replace battle group eight that will return home upon their arrival in Mogadishu.
The troops, who completed a
four-month course at Singo military centre in Nakaseke district on
Friday, comprise of British and French trained snipers equipped with
distinct martial skills.
Other foreign trainers came from
the Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA),
which comprises of mainly retired UN servicemen and women.
Passing out the team on Friday,
Maj. Gen. Levy Karuhanga, the UPDF commander of reserve forces, and a
group of senior officers were mesmerized by the antics of cordon and
search as well as shooting exhibited by the graduands, especially
snipers.
“The skills demonstrated imply
you are ready to take up the mandate. It’s a manifestation of the
maturity needed to pursue terrorists and restore calm among the Somalis
which had been denied to them by the al-Shabaab,” said Karuhanga.
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