From the 19th of April 2017, the backbone of the AU Task Force against the Christian terrorist group called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LR), the Ugandan government has started withdrawing her military troops involved in the US-backed operations from Central African Republic.
So far about 31 the soldiers involved landed at Gulu Airfield in Gulu District on Tuesday and Wednesday in the on-going military withdraws.
The 4th Infantry Division Spokesperson Lt Hassan Kato confirmed to Daily Monitor in an interview Wednesday that UPDF has began it’s total withdraw from CAR.
Brigadier Joseph Katsigazi, the UPDF Chief of Staff received some of the soldiers at Gulu Airfield.
Uganda was the first country in the region to have put its military troops on the ground in CAR in 2009 after it was reported that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels were causing instability in the densely forested western region of Obo.
They were later joined in 2010 by a hundred of US Special Forces to support the Ugandan troops in intelligence gathering on LRA activities in CAR.
The Ugandan army has been the only active African force hunting down the rebels in the jungles, but in 2012, regional governments agreed to form a Regional Task Force (RTF) under the African Union to boost the fight against LRA. Forces from DR Congo, South Sudan and CAR were supposed to deploy under the RTF.
It is therefore hoped that their withdrawal would not trigger more disastrous insurgencies perpetrated by the Christian terrorist group in the region.
“We’re please to hear the return of our gallant soldiers. However, I’m seriously concerned about the safety of the citizens of CRA and most importantly the innocent CAR-based Ugandans. The withdrawal might give them more opportunities to boost their devilish acts in the region,” said Shamirah Abdallah, a Ugandan based in Somaliland.
