Ugandan peacekeepers suffered their first casualties in an ambush by Somali insurgents after landing this week to help the country’s interim government restore stability, an officer said on Thursday.
Captain Paddy Ankunda, spokesperson for the African Union force, said two soldiers were hurt when unknown gunmen attacked the troops late on Wednesday in the Horn of Africa country’s chaotic capital, Mogadishu.
”We suffered two minor injuries. We fired in the air to scare them and that is how we managed to drive through,” he said, adding that the AU mission would investigate the ambush.
”We are not going to take a hurried decision … Our position is we are not going impose our will on the Somali people.”
The Somali government and its Ethiopian allies, who helped it defeat rival Islamists late last year, have been hit by almost daily guerrilla attacks in the coastal city.
The Ugandans were the first peacekeepers to land there since a United States and United Nations operation ended in failure in 1995 after street battles with local militias forced them to withdraw. — Reuters