US mourns Maj. Gen. Oketta

Nov 15, 2016

Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, awarded Oketta a medal for leading a successful campaign against Ebola in 2014

The US has mourned the passing of Maj. Gen. Julius Oketta. Oketta, who died on November 5 at 60 years of age, was buried at his ancestral home in Amuru district last week.

The US ambassador to Uganda, Deborah Malac, said Oketta, who led the African Union Support to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, was ‘a great colleague and a stronger partner'.

"We mourn the passing of Maj. Gen. Julius Oketta. He was a great colleague, not only in the African Union, but in Liberia and West Africa. May he rest in peace," she said.

Malac was delivering a keynote address at the first East Africa regional biosafety and biosecurity conference at Kampala Sheraton Hotel on Monday.

The Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, awarded Oketta a medal for leading a successful campaign against Ebola in 2014.

Until his demise, Oketta, who joined the Ugandan military in 1979, was director National Emergency Coordination and Operations Centre in the Office of the Prime Minister and deputy chief coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation Programme.

inister of ealth ane ceng and mbassador eborah alac chat at the first egional iosafety iosecurity onference at heraton otel in ampala hoto by acheal assuuna Minister of Health, Jane Aceng, and Ambassador Deborah Malac chat at the first Regional Biosafety Biosecurity Conference at Sheraton Hotel in Kampala. Photo by Racheal Nassuuna

 

In 2013, Oketta joined the advisory group of the UN Central Emergency Response Fund upon endorsement by the outgoing UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, and nomination by President Yoweri Museveni.

During a requiem mass for Oketta at Church of Our Lady of Africa in Mbuya, a Kampala suburb, on November 8, the UN resident coordinator, Rosa Malango, who delivered a condolence message from the (UN) system, said the senior army officer was a humanitarian hero.

"We in the UN family shall miss him dearly and we will make sure his legacy does not end with his death," she added.

Oketta, Malango stated assumed the mantle to lead an AU mission against Ebola when the world still considered how to respond to the crisis, and that now Uganda is a shining example. The African Union also mourned his death.

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