Al-Shabaab are defeated - Museveni
What you need to know:
Mr Museveni said after the UPDF smashed a mass attack in August 2010 by “these confused people” in several parts of Somalia, the militants resorted to sniper attacks on UPDF troops there
Kampala.
President Museveni has said the al-Shabaab militants whose previous terror activities have caused fear in Somalia, Uganda and neighbouring Kenya have been defeated.
In a statement issued to the media last Friday, Mr Museveni described the al-Shabaab ideologically as bankrupt because they target unarmed and innocent people.
“The most atrocious, criminal, cowardly and monstrous attacks by al-Shabaab against soft and innocent targets such as shoppers, students or football fans may look very frightening to those that are not used to war or that are not well-informed,” the statement read in part.
“They (attacks) prove that al-Shabaab is sectarian, bankrupt both morally and ideologically and that al-Shababb is already defeated,” the statement added.
Mr Museveni’s statement comes on the heels of an attack by the al-Shabaab militants on a UN bus in Garowe, Somalia, on last week. Six people, including a Ugandan - Brenda Kyeyune – were killed in the attack.
Mr Museveni said after the UPDF smashed a mass attack in August 2010 by “these confused people” in several parts of Somalia, the militants resorted to sniper attacks on UPDF troops there.
The President also said the manipulation of young Muslim youth by al-Shabaab leaders by promising them paradise (janah) by dying while fighting the “Kaffirs” (non-believers) could no longer persuade poor children to withstand the UPDF might.
However, Gen Katumba Wamala, the Chief of Defence Forces, has on occasions when flagging off UPDF soldiers to Somalia, cited dangers still posed by the militants.
Although there are no official figures of UPDF killed by the militants, the al-Shabaab have launched several attacks in which UPDF soldiers died.
On Christmas Day last year, the militants attacked AU’s base in Mogadishu, killing four and injuring several UPDF soldiers. In 2010, the militants attacked the Presidential Palace in Mogadishu and killed four Ugandan peacekeepers.
