The Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces have made three years since their deployment to the West African nation of Equatorial Guinea.
Eagle Online exclusively broke this story three years ago how the Ugandan troops in February 2017 had been secretly deployed in Guinea without parliamentary approval.
Exactly making three years having deployed in the mineral rich Equatorial Guinea, Eagle Online has reliably learnt that UPDF has increased its troops from 200 soldiers deployed in 2017 to 700 soldiers in 2020.
Security sources in 2017 told this website that the troops were deployed in batches to protect African’s longest serving President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
The first batch left early February in 2017 with their weapons and they were commanded by Lt. Col. Wycleff Keita who returned had from Somalia the previous year. He was working as the commander of the Ugandan troops guarding UN installations in Somalia.
After the revelation, Parliament asked Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs to give a detailed position on how the soldiers were deployed in Equatorial Guinea without approval from the legislators.
Acknowledging its presence in the West African country, the UPDF Spokesperson Brigadier Richard Karemire said the Ugandan force had gained the necessary credentials to train other forces and therefore, they soldiers had been deployed to train Equatorial Guinea soldiers.
“UPDF professionalism has been upheld and now we are being considered as trainers and this is because last year, the British army chose only UPDF in Africa for training and indeed they came and trained and so after that help, we are also training others,” Brig. Karemire, told EagleOnline.
He stressed: “It is not a peace keeping mission and it didn’t need a Parliamentary approval; it is legal and in line with the two armies that signed the agreement.”
However, three years down the road, the UPDF soldiers are still ‘training’ and even increasing its presence in Guinea. Brig. Kalemire couldn’t be reached by phone as it was switched off.
It’s not clear under what arrangement UPDF deployed because according to the Uganda Constitution of 1995, deployment of soldiers outside the country must be approved by Parliament.
However, President Museveni and Nguema have been so close. According to military sources, President Nguema requested his Ugandan counterpart to offer him security because Guinean national army is ill-equipped and poorly trained.
