President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, on Friday (April 24, 2015) wrote an article analysing the al-Shabaab war in Somalia and its cowardly attacks on civilian targets. He says the al-Shabaab force is already defeated. Below is his comment in full.
The most atrocious, criminal, cowardly and monstrous attacks by Al-Shabaab against soft and innocent targets such as shoppers in a Shopping Mall, young students in a University or football fans watching the World Cup matches at the Rugby Club in Kampala may look very frightening to those that are not used to war or that are not well informed. However, those attacks, in fact, prove three things.
They prove that Al-Shabaab is sectarian which is obvious because it only targets Non- Moslems. Secondly, it proves that Al-Shabaab is bankrupt both morally and ideologically. Why attack non-combatants? Why not attack soldiers if you want to fight? Why attack only Non-Moslems? Thirdly, however, it also proves that Al-Shabaab is already defeated. Why do I say this?
I say this because it is that bankrupt Al-Shabaab that initiated attacks against the UPDF in the month of May in the year 2009 in Mogadishu. The UPDF had gone to Mogadishu, not to fight anybody, but, to stabilize the situation there and to guard the Port and the Air Port. This was after the Somali fanctions had agreed to a shared Government in Djibouti and after the American mistakes of manipulating the warlords had failed. We went there under the African Union Flag. You know that flag. It consists of the conspicuously huge map of Africa. Nobody that is not blind can mistake this for anything else.
What IGAD and AU wanted was negotiations to include anybody that had been left of the Interim Government – especially the groups that had been in Eritrea. In any case, we were in just a small portion of Somalia, at the Port, at the Air Port and, later on, on the request of the Interim Somali Government, State House and Kilometre 4 (linking the different positions) was added. Even if the Al-Shabaab did not want to negotiate with the Interim Government for any obscure reason, it was not wise to attack the Ugandan and Burundian troops carrying the AU flag.
Why do you attack the AU flag? Do you not belong to Africa? If you do not belong to Africa, where do you belong? In any case, big chunks of Somalia, including Ports and Air Ports, were under their control. They could build capacity there if they had any ambitions to do so.
However, intoxicated with their bankrupt ideology of Islamic chauvinism (arrogance and narrow-mindedness), they attacked our troops calling them “Kaffir”, “Bakafiri” (primitive people that do not know God) just like the European Imperialists used to call us. Well, the “Kaffirs” taught those idiots that we know how to defend the African soil and the African flag. Our well trained and well-disciplined Army smashed the fanatical attacks of these misled people. Especially in the Ramadhan of August 2010, we smashed the mass attacks of these Confused People and advanced to Barawe, Marka, Juba Hotel, Bondhere, Florencia, Telebunka, Elhindi, Santa gate Shigare, Bakara Market, National Stadium, Mogadishu University, Dayinley, Afugoye, Kilometre 50, Elsaalini and Shalambot beyond our original positions of Air-Port, Sea-Port, Kilometre – 4 and State House.