A deadly al-Shabaab raid where militants overran a base of Ugandan soldiers in Somalia serving under African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) has pushed Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni into an unpleasant discussion of how corruption could have cost the nation dearly.
The 26 May raid on a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Buulo Mareer, Lower Shabelle, 120 kilometres southwest of Mogadishu, Somalia, is said to be the deadliest attack on Ugandans since 2007 when the country deployed.
At least 54 Ugandan soldiers were killed in the raid, including a commander, identified as Lt Col Edward Nyororo, according to Museveni, who spoke over the weekend. The number of fatalities could be significantly higher, according to several reports. An unspecified number of soldiers were captured alive by the militants.
“The terrorists were many, about 800 or so,” Museveni said in a statement. “Some soldiers panicked, got disorganised giving an advantage to al-Shabaab and they “did not perform as expected”.
Four days after the attack, ATMIS soldiers were still pursuing the militants to recover military equipment looted from the base. It took a week to fully regain control