General Wilson Mbasu Mbadi, the Chief of Defence Forces of the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF), visited the Democratic Republic of Congo in Beni (DRC) on Thursday to assess the progress of the joint military “Operation Shujaa” between the UPDF and the FARDC against the terrorist outfit the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
While in DRC, Gen. Mabdi presided over a joint operations evaluation meeting with his counterpart, Lieutenant General Christian Tshiwewe Songesha, Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), in which he stated that the operation has generally degraded the ADF’s ability to wage war.
“The ADF are now scattered in smaller groups, they can nolonger come together for fear that once they converge, we will hit them with our big guns,” he said.
He also highlighted on the earlier achievements such as destruction of ADF’s major parmanent camps like Kambi ya yua, Todoli and others which are nolonger there noting that it is a big achievement to both forces because it denies the terrorists actions of recruitment, training and growing of food.
“What i can assure Ugandans and our Congolese brothers and sisters is that we are committed to continue our operations against the ADF until they are totally unable to threaten security and peace in Eastern DRC and Uganda,” the army commander said.
He further pointed out that by the time UPDF and FARDC started a joint operation Shujaa, the ADF had started throwing bombs and explosives in Uganda which killed many people emphasising that they have degraded the terrorist capacity to target civilians.
Operation Shujaa was commissioned by the Presidents of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to bring peace and security in the Eastern part of DRC. Therefore, the aim of the meeting was to evaluate the progress of Operation Shujaa so that they can come up with other mechanisms to achieve the objectives of the operation.
Speaking on behalf of the Chief of General Staff of FARDC Lieutenant General Christian Tshiwewe Songesha, the Governor of North Kivu Lieutenant General Constant Ndima Kongba thanked His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and His Excellency Felix Tshisekedi Tshilombo for sanctioning the joint operation of totally uprooting the terrorist movement of ADF which was a huge threat to both countries.
“We joined the forces of FARDC and UPDF in order to uproot this threat in order to bring peace to the people of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We as the military, we are determined to finish the mission that was assigned to us by the two Heads of State,” said Lt Gen Ndima.
Lt Gen Ndima added that the results of the operation so far have proved that both FARDC and UPDF have done a commendable job in terms of achieving the objectives of the operation.
The two Forces later signed a joint evaluation report on the progress of Operation Shujaa.
The meeting was attended by, the Commander Land Forces, Lt Gen Kayanja Muhanga, Chief of Military Intelligence, Maj Gen James Birungi, Military Assistant to the CDF, Brig Gen Irumba Tingira, Colonel James Kasule, Colonel Paul Muwonge.
