DETAILS: Gen Muhoozi in Somalia after UPDF Attack, Meets President Mohamud

The senior presidential adviser on special operations Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba spent five days in Mogadishu, Somalia where he visited UPDF soldiers following the Bulo Mareer attack by Alshabaab terrorists.

According to information from his office, Gen Kainerugaba visited the injured soldiers who are recovering in different hospitals in Mogadishu.

Gen Kainerugaba was also briefed on the circumstances under which the attack on the UPDF base happened.

Before concluding his visit, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba met the President of Somalia HE Hassan Mohamud and delivered a message from President Museveni.

President Yoweri Museveni said on Saturday that 54 Ugandan peacekeepers were killed in an attack last week by militant group al Shabaab on a military base in Somalia.

Museveni said the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) had since recaptured the base from the Islamist group.

“Our soldiers demonstrated remarkable resilience and reorganized themselves, resulting in the recapture of the base by Tuesday,” the president said.

Al Shabaab fighters had targeted the base early last Friday in Bulamarer, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu.

Museveni said last week that there had been Ugandan casualties but had not given further details about the attack on the troops, who are serving in the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).

Al Shabaab, which has said it carried out suicide bomb attacks and killed 137 soldiers at the base, has been fighting since 2006 to replace Somalia’s Western-backed government with its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law.