The mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is set to end this month. UPDF which was one of the largest contingent in the peace-keeping mission will be returning home by closure of the business this month. 

Somalia became a key element in tyrant Museveni’s calculations for political survival when a heavy deployment of Uganda’s army in Congo could no longer be justified. At the time, criminal Museveni envisioned Somalia as a tool that would alternatively or simultaneously serve as a shield against international scrutiny for his crimes and a vehicle for self-enrichment and entrenchment in power.

But his overstay in Somalia did not solve anything. Today Somalia remains a safe haven for Al-Shabaab terrorists, and bomb blasts are still the order of the day in Mogadishu and surrounding areas. The same terrorists have been defacto beneficiaries of criminal Museveni’s army because they used to procure arms from them. 

Just last year, two UPDF soldiers were sentenced to death and three others to 39 years in jail for the deaths of civilians. That is after many reports that incriminated many of their colleagues for war crimes like rape and repetitive plundering. 

It is no surprise that for all these reasons and more, despot Museveni had repeatedly sabotaged efforts to find sustainable solutions for Somalia, which would render Uganda’s presence in that country and Museveni’s utility to donors obsolete.

Get out of other people’s country!