Kampala-The former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and the Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga have formed a company to redevelop the Namugongo Catholic shrines which will also be a religious tourist center.

Mbabazi’s daughter, Nina Mbabazi, Kampala businessman Charles Mbiire and Archbishop Lwanga are signatories to the Company’s account opened in Centenary Bank.

“In an extra ordinary meeting held at the Company’s  registered offices on the 4th Day of February, 2014 the following resolution was duly proposed and passed: That RT Hon. Amama Mbabazi of C/P Po Box 14125, Kampala, Uganda be and is appointed chairman of the company with immediate effect,” the documents read.

Uganda Martrys Shrines Redevelopment Limited is a company limited by guarantee and about 55 members who are referred in the company documents as subscribers are shareholders.

Nina Mbabazi

Among the 55 subscribers are; Emmy Katabazi, Bank of Uganda Governor, Tumusiime Mutebile, UPDF chief of Construction, Brig Sabiti Mutebile who is a brother Tumsiime Mutebile, Mbabazi’s other daughter, Rachel Mbabazi and Makerere University’s Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe.

Mbabazi’s lawyer Severino Twinobusingye is the Company secretary. a number of catholic priests are also subscribers.

It not clear whether the money being collected now for renovation is being put his account.

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The number of South Sudanese seeking refuge following the aborted peace deal signing last Monday has risen to 619,386 by August 19, an increase of 60,386 refugees in June this year.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the largest host of South Sudanese refugees in the region is Ethiopia with 221,376 followed by Sudan with 191,253, Uganda with 160, 300 and Kenya with 46,457 refugees.

The conflict in South Sudan pitting soldiers loyal to President salva Kiir Mayardit and his nemesis Riek Machar Teny broke out in December 2013 and since then tens of thousands have been killed, while over two million have been displaced, including 1.6 million inside South Sudan.

The volatile situation led to the intervention of the international community, with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) brokering several peace deals, the latest being the one which collapsed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on August 17 after General Kiir demanded for time to assess the ‘final peace agreement’.

‘The humanitarian situation in South Sudan continued to deteriorate with no significant progress on political efforts to resolve the conflict,’ a UNOCHA report states.

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Militaries in Africa have been advised to consider ‘joint procurement’ (at certain levels) in a bid to overcome the financial and administrative challenges that impede their readiness.

According to the report: Ready to Serve: Financing African Militaries and Securing Readiness, released August 21 by Think Security Africa (TSA), there is a likely change in the funding priorities of military operations in Africa due to ‘increased budgetary uncertainty’ and a ‘sharp drop in commodity prices.’

The TSA report cites nine key changes in Africa’s defence environment and also indicates that 18 per cent of the African armies are ‘impacted by existential crises and 35 per cent are undertaking operations beyond normal peacetime activity.’

“The key findings of the report, which uses infographics and maps as visual aids, is that new funding priorities and approaches to resourcing African militaries are required. This is to ensure that African militaries retain and develop the capacity to guarantee national defence,” The report by Africa Press Organisation (APO) states in part.

According to the TSA founder Adunola Abiola, African militaries and donors are likely to change funding priorities to enhance the sustainability of operations ‘if the rise in military operations in Africa continues, alongside rising budgetary uncertainties’.

“In addition to this, militaries will have to cooperate more closely on the administrative and operational levels, and defence contractors will likely have to amend the way they market and supply, “Abiola says. The TSA report comes in the wake of several militaries across Africa participating in peacekeeping and support operations across the black spots on the continent, with the tacit approval of the African Union.

For instance, in East Africa Uganda, Kenya and Burundi are troop-contributing countries to war-ravaged Somalia, while Rwanda and Tanzania has over the years deployed peacekeepers in the Darfur region of Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), respectively.

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Over the past few years river Nyamwamba in Kasese has persistently burst its banks, causing deaths, displacement of persons and severe damage to property in the affected areas.

And this year several disaster prone areas in east Africa including Kasese district of Uganda are expected to be hit diseases like cholera as a result of flooding caused by El Niño.

According to the July – August report by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the El Nino, which now has the high probability of occurrence of 90 per cent, ill most likely be the worst in 30 years and will hit parts of Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and other parts of Uganda. The UN agency also indicates that the El Niño will affect the food security situation and other attendant social malaises in the East Africa and Horn regions.

In 2002 and 2009 the East Africa and Horn regions experienced El Nino and UNOCHA, quoting FESW NET, says this time the above-normal rains will continue through October 2015 and into 2016.

“Parts of Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and Kenya are expected to experience severe flooding while other parts of the region will experience drought conditions. Prolonged severe flooding may lead to outbreaks of Rift Valley Fever and other tropical water-borne diseases,” the UN release states in part. Already, according to UNOCHA, there are reported cases of cholera especially in the coastal areas of Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.

“Other notable areas include major counties of Kenya, Kasese District in Uganda, South Sudan internally displaced persons’ sites and the Burundi refugees in Nyarugusi and Kigoma Districts transit centres,” the release states and calls for urgent preparedness in livestock vaccination and, water and sanitation interventions in the flood-prone areas.

“Preparedness measures and early action are required to mitigate the impacts of the drier-than-normal conditions and flooding in affected areas, “ the release states and says other social malaises include infrastructure damage, cutting off access to communities, crop damages in the field and post-harvest losses.

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Four hundred and thirty five thousand Somali refugees are to be voluntarily repatriated from Kenya over the next five years.

According to a July-August report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in East Africa, the decision was concretised during a July 29 meeting of stakeholders, operating under the auspices of the Tripartite Commission for the Voluntary Repatriation of Somali Refugees from Kenya.

‘The repatriation of Somali refugees from Kenya entered a new stage during the reporting period. At a meeting on 29 July, the Tripartite Commission for the Voluntary Repatriation of Somali Refugees from Kenya, comprising the Government of the Republic of Kenya, the Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia, and UNHCR agreed on concrete operational modalities to scale up the safe, dignified and voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees from Kenya’ the UNOCHA release states in part.

The repatriation of Somali refuges comes in the wake of persistent terror attacks carried out by suspected Al Shabaab, a Somali terrorist group that reportedly has links with other Somali nationals living in Kenya as citizens, illegal immigrants and refugees.

And, according to the three parties indicate that under the Joint Strategy and Operational Plan, this year will see 10.000 Somali refugees repatriated from Kenya and reintegrated in the Somali community and already 116 refugees were on August 5 flown from Dadaab to Mogadishu in two planes. The other repatriates will return home as follows: 100,000 in 2016; 150,000 in 2017; 130,000 in 2018 and 35,000 in 2019 and will be reintegrated in nine areas such as Mogadishu, Afgoye, Jowhar, WanlaWeyn and Belet Weyn.

Others include Luuq, Baidoa and Kismayo, the areas which were used to pioneer the pilot phase from December 2014 and June this year.

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A deputy leader of Islamic State (IS), Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, has been killed in a US military strike in northern Iraq, the White House says.

Hayali, also known as Hajji Mutazz, is described by US officials as the second in command of the group.

They said he was killed in an attack on his car in Mosul on Tuesday, and that his death would damage IS operations.

A number of IS leaders have been taken out by US-led air coalition strikes in both Iraq and Syria in recent months.

‘Wide influence’

Hayali was a primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria, the US National Security Council’s Ned Price said in a statement.

In Iraq, Hayali was “instrumental in planning operations over the past two years, including the IS offensive in Mosul in June 2014”, Mr Price said.

He is described as “the senior deputy” to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was reportedly seriously injured in another air strike by the US-led coalition in March this year.

“Hayali’s death will adversely impact IS’s operations given that his influence spanned IS’s finance, media, operations, and logistics,” Mr Price added.

A second IS member who coordinated media, known as Abu Abdullah, was killed in the same air strike as Hayali.

It comes several months after Iraqi defence officials declared another “IS second-in-command”, Abdul Rahman Mustafa Mohammed, dead in an air strike in northern Iraq.

Mohammed, also known as Abu Alaa al-Afari, was killed inside a mosque hit by a strike in Tal Afar in May, they reported.

At the time, there were unconfirmed reports Afari had taken temporary charge of IS operations amid reports IS leader Baghdadi had become incapacitated.

In June this year, the US reported that more than 10,000 IS fighters had been killedsince the international coalition began its campaign against the group last summer.

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Three Ugandan soldiers have been charged over the killing last month of a group of civilians in Somalia, an African Union (AU) official has said.

Maman Sidikou, the head of the AU in Somalia, apologised to the families of the seven people killed in the attack.

The AU had previously denied that the incident took place.

According to the campaign group Human Rights Watch, AU troops from Uganda began shooting at men at a wedding party after coming under fire.

Witnesses said that the troops entered several houses in Merca, 70km (45 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, after a grenade attack on their convoy.

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Mr Sidikou admitted on Friday that seven civilians had been killed.

“We have established that, on that occasion, seven civilians died following an incident involving our troops,” he said in a statement.

“I would like, on behalf of the African Union, to offer my sincere apology for these deaths. We regret these deaths,” he added.

The three AU soldiers have now been indicted and are waiting to be arraigned, according to the statement.

“I have instituted a board of inquiry composed of military, civilian and police officers who are not from the contingent concerned in order to ensure impartiality,” Mr Sidikou said.

Witnesses described the incident to Human Rights Watch.

“At one house, where the Moalim Iidey family was celebrating a wedding, the soldiers separated the men from the women and shot the six adult men – four brothers, their father, and an uncle,” HRW said in a statement.

“Four died immediately, one brother hid under a bed after being shot but later died, and the father died during the night after the soldiers allegedly refused to allow the family to take him to the hospital,” it said.

HRW says witnesses also allege that 11 civilians were killed by AU troops on 21 July in Merca.

None of the survivors of the two alleged incidents spoken to by Human Rights Watch have yet been interviewed by AU investigators, the rights group said.

AU troops have been in the Somalia since 2007 helping various UN-backed governments fight the al-Shabab militant group.

“Our soldiers are operating in a very complex environment,” Mr Sidikou said in the AU statement.

“We will continue to appeal to our host communities to facilitate the work of our troops in the fight against al Shabab.”

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