Jerry Nguwa, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
The Ugandan People's defence Forces (UPDF) top brass is a worried a lot after the army reportedly lost contact with an unspecified number of assault helicopters en route to Somalia. Army spokesman Felix Kulayigye said: "The search is going on, we don't know what exactly happened but we are investigating it and we will let you know when I get adequate information."
Security sources who spoke to this writer from Entebbe this morning confirmed to Hapamedia that indeed some military choppers left the UPDF military base at Entebbe for Somalia yesterday Sunday August 12, 2012. They were not however privy to the route the military choppers would take.
It later in the night that the UPDF announced that only one military helicopter reached the refueling base of Wajir in Kenya. The others were not accounted for.
The UPDF refused to divulgate the number of helicopters missing. The information comes only a day after the Kenya Navy launched an attack in Kismayo shows just how serious the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) which includes Kenya, Uganda, and Burundi is putting a base for the last assault on Kismayu.
It seems that the military choppers were to lend a fire power to Kenyan Forces in the capture of Somalia given that their refuelling point was Wajir in North Eastern Kenya and southern Somalia. AMISOM has been battling the al-Shabaab insurgency for more than two years. However the war dynamic changed when Kenya crossed into Somalia in pursuit of Al-Shabaab which was involved in many attacks aimed at sabotaging the Kenyan Economy.
Al-Shabaab current only stronghold is the city of Kismayu and the fall of the port City could determine the end of the war. A military source in the Kenya Air Force who spoke to Hapamedia on condition of anonymity hinted that Kismayo could fall before the term of the United Nations backed transitional government ends in one week time.
The Transitional National Constituent Assembly, sitting in Mogadishu has already approved a provisional constitution to replace an 8-year-old Transitional Federal Charter and lead to the end of the transition process on August 20, when the mandate of the U.N.-backed government expires.
One thing that gives hope to the International Community though is that majority of Somali clans that have previously seem to agree for the stabilization of the country.
The Ugandan People's defence Forces (UPDF) top brass is a worried a lot after the army reportedly lost contact with an unspecified number of assault helicopters en route to Somalia. Army spokesman Felix Kulayigye said: "The search is going on, we don't know what exactly happened but we are investigating it and we will let you know when I get adequate information."
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