STORY BY HAKIM KANYERE
The United States government has donated military equipment worth $ 50M (approximately 190 billion Uganda Shillings) to the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).
The consignment was officially handed over to the UPDF by the US ambassador to Uganda Malac Deborah received by the Commander of Defence Forces Gen. David Muhoozi at a ceremony held at the Uganda Rapid Development Capability Centre (URDCC) in Jinja.
The consignment comprises thirty Benz Atego soft body trucks, six telehandlers, one rough terrain container handler and 03 rough terrain armoured troop carriers. Others include one bulldozer D7R2, 10 generators and spare parts for all the donated equipment.
The US Ambassador Deborah Malac who presided over the handover ceremony says this is part of her government’s initiative under African Peace Rapid Response partnership (APRRP) to support African countries whose peace keeping support and response to crises standout across the continent.
Malac says the UPDF peace keeping mission in Somalia speaks volumes hence the US government felt it worth to support the force with logistics.
On behalf of the UPDF, the CDF Gen. David Muhoozi thanked the American government for including Uganda among the countries to benefit from the APRRP.
He says this will help the UPDF to answer threats and security challenges and structure the necessary preparedness and their responses.
Some of these equipment are not necessarily for war but can serve other purposes like during disaster, or any crisis.
