In efforts to boost the morale of Ugandan soldiers serving under Amisom, President Yoweri Museveni spent Tuesday night at the UPDF Halane base in Mogadishu under tight security.
Museveni, who was in Mogadishu to attend an extra ordinary summit of Intergovernmental Agency on Development (IGAD), spent the night meeting UPDF commanders at the base that has on several occasions come under attack by the Somali insurgents Al Shabaab.
The IGAD summit was also attended by the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, who went back home after the meeting.
In a statement issued by the UPDF Amisom contingent spokesperson Captain Flavia Telimulungi, the President “thanked the troops for the Pan Africanism spirit which is one of the core values that make UPDF an exemplary force on the African continent.”
Mr Museveni added: “I thank you for helping our brothers and sisters in pacification of Somalia, and being a good example of unity.”
According to the statement, the President told the troops that Africans should resist divisionism based on clans, religion and gender disparities which he said are the ‘major problems’ of Africa.
Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia are among the countries with troops in Somalia.