Editor, The Somali Islamist threats to attack Kampala and Burundi should not be taken lightly. The people who will to pay heavily are innocent Ugandans and Burundians if these terrorists make good their threat.
Editor,
The Somali Islamist threats to attack Kampala and Burundi should not be taken lightly. The people who will to pay heavily are innocent Ugandans and Burundians if these terrorists make good their threat.
What is needed is for the IGAD (InterGovernmental Authority on Development) to raise a regional army, the way ECOWAS handled Liberia with ECOMOG. A pre-emptive strike is the way out.
Raise 50,000 men and clean out this mess once and for all. The AU is too ‘fragmented’ to have any impact beyond making. The small force of Ugandans and Burundians, bankrolled by the EU and US, cannot pass for an AU force.
The immediate victims of any Al-Shabab madness will be the IGAD countries, who must act immediately. Given the porous nature of our borders and cross-nationality citizenship, it won’t be easy to tell a terrorist on a recon-mission from a Ugandan of Somali extraction or a genuine refugee.
Time for IGAD to act is now. Learn from NATO in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Amon Mbekiza
Kampala, Uganda