Uganda to investigate deaths of soldiers deployed in Somalia

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The Ugandan Army created a commission to investigate the circumstances in which three Ugandan soldiers deployed in Somalia were killed by a comrade.

The spokesman for the People’s Defense Forces, Brigadier General Felix Kulayigye, said that the deceases and the perpetrator were part of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (Atmis).

He stated that the incident occurred in previous hours at the Mogadishu International Airport when a soldier, whose name was not revealed, opened fire at members of his detachment, without the motives for the crimes being known as of yet.

The attacker was arrested after the shooting and will be transferred to Kampala in the next few hours, where he will be interrogated and tried by a military court martial, the source said.

Under a Ugandan military law, enacted in 2005, a person who shoots a colleague by negligence can be sentenced to life in prison.

Local media reported that a similar event took place back in May 2019 also in Somalia, when a Ugandan soldier shot down a superior officer before committing suicide.