AT least six explosions rocked the Somali capital Mogadishu yesterday as Ugandan peacekeepers started arriving in the lawless Horn of Africa country, BBC and Reuters reported.
Witnesses said they heard mortar bombs being fired in the direction of the coastal city’s port, in a reminder of the tough task awaiting the African Union mission designed to help Somalia’s interim government pacify the anarchic country.
The insurgents are suspected to be a mix of Islamist guerrillas and clan militia fighting for control of the capital, which, like the rest of Somalia, has been deprived of effective central government since dictator Muhammad Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.
A cargo plane dropped off 35 uniformed Ugandan officers in Somalia on Thursday, as part of a proposed 8,000-strong AU force.
However, the spokesperson of the UPDF Somali continent, Capt. Paddy Ankunda, asserted: “There are no (UPDF) troops in Somalia.”
On Thursday, some 100 train wagons loaded with military equipment left Kampala for Somalia, shortly after President Yoweri Museveni flagged off the mission in Jinja.
Ankunda added: “When the equipment reaches Somalia, the airlifting of the 1,605 soldiers will start.”
