FDC wants UPDF out of Somalia
Daily Monitor reporter

The opposition Forum for Democratic Change party is demanding for the immediate return of the UPDF soldiers who are on a peace keeping mission in the troubled state of Somalia.

The FDC leader Rtd Colonel Dr. Kiiza Besigye says that soldiers are no longer involved in peace keeping but are now part of a dubious civil war.

The party's demands come after reports that over 30 UPDF soldiers who are part of the peace keeping mission were last week attacked by a strange disease and flown to Nairobi for emergency treatment. The disease was later identified as a bacterial infection known as leptospirosis caused by rat’s urine.

The African Union Peace Keeping Mission (Amisom) dismissed claims that the soldiers had been poisoned by the Islamists fundamentalists, Al Shabaab who are opposed to the interim government in Somalia and the peace-keeping mission. Other peacekeepers from Burundi, four of whom died were also infected.

Besigye while addressing journalists today at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi says the UPDF is now locked up in the conflict and being used by foreign countries to serve selfish interests. He says the government needs to refocus its interests on peace keeping and not serving foreign interests.

Somalia has been locked in civil for decades, with fighting mainly between the Al Shabab rebels and the Transitional Federal Government. The Uganda and Burundi armies are in Somalia to pacify the country that has had one of the longest running armed conflicts on the African continent.

Over 4,000 UPDF soldiers are deployed in Somalia to pacify the country from warring parties in a war that has destabilised the Horn of Africa nation for over two decades.