DEATH

Retired Lt Col Ahmed Kashilingi, one of the key National Resistance Army (NRA) commanders during Uganda's five-year bush war in the 1980s, has died.

He was 82.

Security minister Maj. Gen. (rtd) Jim Muhwezi announced Kashilingi's death in a tweet on Thursday, November 3.

“I am saddened to announce the passing of comrade Lt Col (rtd) Ahmed Kashilingi. He was a brave and dedicated soldier. He served his country until now when he has gone to be with his creator,” Muhwezi, a bush war fighter himself, said.

“May Allah (God) rest the soul of my departed comrade in eternal peace,” added the Rujumbura County MP.

By the time of writing this story, the cause of the retired military officer's death had not been revealed.

Burial is scheduled for Friday in Rukungiri district, western Uganda.

A few years after the NRA/M captured power in 1986, Kashilingi was retired from the army to work in the security ministry as principal technical officer.  He has since been living a quiet life. 

He joined the army on October 21, 1967 and by the time Idi Amin took over power in 1971, he was a sergeant.

He trained as a commando in Iraq and did many other courses. However, he was later arrested by Amin’s soldiers and jailed in Luzira Prison after being accused of collaborating with exiled Ugandans in Tanzania to overthrow the government.

In one of the interviews with a local newspaper, Kashilingi said he later escaped and walked for three days from Luzira to Kebisoni in Rukungiri district.

After joining the bush in 1981, he was at the frontline for five years and never got a break. Two years after the capture of power, he got the rank of lieutenant colonel and a year later, retired and joined public service.

During the war, he commanded the 5th NRA battalion, which captured the strategic Katonga bridge on Masaka-Mbarara Road.

Kashilingi's battalion also blocked Entebbe Road during the final onslaught on Kampala in 1986. He was later arrested and charged with treason in 1992.

“We fought the NRA war because it was worthwhile, because there was a problem. We needed peace and there was dictatorship. We now have peace. We are a democratic country,” he said in one of the media interviews.