President Yoweri Museveni. | Photo: Eagleonline

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said the company of UPDF peacekeeping forces in Somalia had panicked when Al-Shabab terrorist group struck and overrun their base on the weekend.

Museveni spoke about the early Friday morning raid at a military base in Somalia, revealing details why Al Shabaab managed to overrun the barrack guarded by around 200 Ugandan troops.

According to The EastAfrican, the militants attacked the base of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (Atmis) at Buulo Mareer, Lower Shabelle, on May 26, killing scores of Ugandan soldiers and destroying military equipment.

The Al-Shabab militants, reportedly 800 in number, ravaged the heavily-guarded Atmis facility with suicide bombers and heavy artillery.

Museveni, who is the Commander-in-chief of the army, questions the response of the forces at the base and the failure of both human and technology intelligence to detect the attackers.

“Those defences are quite strong, although they are guarded by light weapons,” President Museveni said, as reported The EastAfrican.

According to his statement, there were two tanks, two 14.5mm anti- air-craft guns and a 107mm Katyusha rocket launcher.

But Museveni said some of the soldiers did not perform as expected and panicked, which led to disorganization and the Al-Shabaab took advantage of that to overrun the base and destroy some of the equipment.

“The panic, it seems, was totally unnecessary because, in fact, both the anti-tank ditch and our soldiers had destroyed three vehicles of explosives outside the FOB. The suicide bombers or whatever were forced to blow themselves up before they gained entry into the base,” he said further.

“Moreover, our UAVs were watching the whole scenario from up in the sky and directing fire. The Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) has set up a Board of Inquiry (BOI), and the full facts will come out, including the details of the casualties.”