Posted on 11/28/2010 7:42:03 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Four months after an al-Qaida-linked group blew up two night spots here in what is among Africa's safest capital cities, Francis Semwogerere remains in a hospital bed, slipping in and out of consciousness, shrapnel from the blast lodged in his throat and spinal column and leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
His brother Emmanuel said that during one of his waking moments recently, Francis was lamenting Uganda's decision to send troops to Somalia -- the reason the Islamic rebel group al-Shabab gave for striking Kampala.
"He was saying, 'The president should pull out of Somalia. There's no need for our troops to be there. Otherwise I wouldn't be lying here,'" Emmanuel told AOL News.
Many Ugandans share Francis' sentiment. But Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is not among them.
What Museveni sees in al-Shabab is an insurgency numbering only about 4,000 fighters divided along clan lines with artillery that at best includes improvised explosive devices and pickup trucks sporting anti-aircraft guns. That has kept the Transitional Federal Government from stabilizing Somalia and perhaps sustained al-Shabab's dream of turning the lawless horn of African country into an Islamic state.
But to the former bush leader who has now ruled Uganda for 24 years, that hardly amounts to a formidable force, and he is eager to put an end to the rebel group.
To do that, Museveni has offered to send up to 20,000 troops to Somalia to bolster the 7,200 African peacekeepers -- most of whom are Ugandan and Burundian -- already stationed there, so long as a richer nation foots the bill for logistics and equipment.
(Excerpt) Read more at aolnews.com ...
G’night all.
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