Terrorism is not a new phenomenon in human experience. Uganda has since the early 2000s been a close ally of the US in the war against terrorism on the African continent.
As such, the East African country was the first to deploy troops under AMISON into Somalia in March 2007, which has currently been engulfed with wide criticism in the Middle East, and the rest of the world as being a foreign force fighting a proxy war, and also as ‘foreign machineries’ for hire.
Terrorism is not a new phenomenon in human experience but should be distinguished from violence. Violence has been used throughout human history by those who chose to oppose states, kings, and princes. Violence in opposition to a government is often targeted against the military, especially national armies and other state paramilitaries and those who govern.
Terrorism encompasses a range of complex threats. Organized terrorism in conflict zones, foreign terrorist fighters, radicalized ‘lone wolves’, and attacks using chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive materials.
Terrorist networks incite individuals, and often young people, to leave their communities across the world and travel to conflict zones, primarily in Iraq, Somalia and Syria and increasingly in Libya and DRC. The way recruits are targeted and radicalized has shifted, with a greater focus on social media and other digital channels.
On Friday 26th May Al-Shabab issued a statement claiming that it had successfully raided a UPDF base in the Lower Shebeele region and killed at least 137 soldiers and captured others. However, the Ugandan government through Uganda’s president insisted that the attack claimed 54 lives of Ugandan soldiers (UPDF). The Somali government and the international community have urged the foreign forces to leave the country, a similar sentiment that is very popular amongst a wide section of Ugandans.
In October and November 2021 alone, four bomb attacks were reportedly carried out in Kampala. One of the attacks took place a few meters away from Kampala’s central police station, while the second one occurred near the Parliament, reflecting the boldness of the attackers, and at the same time raising questions regarding their real identity.
The attacks strengthened the justification for implementing certain security measures in and outside Uganda. By the end of 2021, Uganda People’s Defense Forces, the national military force, had entered the neighboring DR Congo, in a joint military operation that is intended to dislodge the rebels and put an end to their terrorist activities that potentially threaten safety in Uganda. Back home, the government reacted fast within its anti-terrorism apparatus, by arresting and/or killing those suspected to be connected to ADF and the bombings on the spot.
The 2021 bombings have evoked a discourse on terrorism within and outside, questioning the authenticity of the government’s narrative that ADF is a terrorist group.
Uganda has experienced general instability in the form of political demonstrations and a series of shootings of prominent people, including that of the assistant inspector general of police, Andrew Felix Kaweesi, in 2017. The former commander of the Ugandan army (UPDF) and currently the Minister for Works and Transport, Katumba Wamala, survived an assassination attempt in June 2021 in an attack that left his daughter and driver dead. While the government usually blames this instability on terrorists.
The most recent attack was the June 16th massacre where attackers raided a school at Mpondwe town which is about 2 kilometers from the Uganda-DRC border and killed 42 people, 37 of whom were students with a couple more being abducted.
This is shortly after the acquittal and release of the area king Charles Wesley Mumbere of the Rwenzururu kingdom who has been battling charges of treason since 2017 when he was arrested alongside some of his servants and his palace bombed to ashes by the current deputy CDF of the Ugandan Forces UPDF Gen Peter Elwelu.
Historically, there have been a number of responses to terrorism. These have Included the use of violence to oppose terrorists, the use of negotiation, and finally the use of international conventions to create international norms in opposing terrorism. While these three are not, by any means, the only ways in which governments have sought to address terrorism, they certainly have been among the most popular.
The use of force and violence against terrorism has been demonstrated periodically. U.S. military action against the Taliban in Afghanistan and the African Union Mission (AMISOM) against Al-Shabab in Somalia is an Example of the use of force against terrorism though AMISOM has hit a snag due to global castigation of their being in Somalia.
By the end of 2021, Uganda People’s Defense Forces, the national military force, had entered the neighboring DR Congo to dislodge the ADF cells in the neighborhood, a move whose achievements have not yet been visibly seen, or perhaps not explained to an ordinary Ugandan citizen, given the fact that the terrorists have kept the mass murders ongoing internally.
Negotiation is a second method for dealing with terrorism. While nations may refuse publicly to negotiate with terrorist groups, they may follow a different strategy in secret. For example, Great Britain had long refused to negotiate with the Irish Republican Army and its political wing Sinn Fein. Yet, out of the public view negotiations did proceed, ultimately leading to the Good Friday Agreements, which went far in ending terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland.
The 2017 negotiations and 2018 release of over 100 Chibok girls in Nigeria that had been captured by Boko-Haram is also a good example.
Another example is the negotiation that took place between the African National Congress (ANC) and the apartheid government of South Africa. The ANC had been prescribed as a terrorist organization, and the government foresaw any negotiation with the ANC. Yet, behind the scenes negotiations did take place, ultimately resulting in the end of apartheid in South Africa.
International agreements are another attempt at addressing terrorism. International organizations, such as the United Nations, African Union, East African Community etc., pass resolutions and seek to foster greater political action among member states. For example, the 1997 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings requires that parties to the convention must make it a criminal act to unlawfully and intentionally use explosives or other deadly devices in public with the objective of causing death or injuring a person. Another example of action by the international community was UN Security Council anti-terrorism resolution 1373, Improving International Cooperation.
In conclusion, clear analysis shows that Uganda’s price is very high in terms of its forces and ordinary citizens in the fight against terrorism with a lot more to worry about, despite all the fronts showing no realistic achievement or lasting solution in its foreign policy against terrorism
Byamukama Richard Bard is a lawyer and a student of masters in security and strategic studies, trained from Kabalye National Police Training School and Great Lakes Institute of Security and Strategic Studies
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