Tag Archives: soldiers

Nekemte, Ethiopia | AFP |  Desta Garuma, a 27-year-old rickshaw driver, never showed much interest in politics, so his family has no idea how soldiers concluded he was involved in a rebel movement active in Ethiopia’s Oromia region. But one day in January, five truckloads of soldiers followed him home, shouting …

Mapel, South Sudan | AFP |  At a remote and spartan bush barracks in South Sudan, a motley collection of government soldiers and their rebel enemies chanted in unison, raising their mock wooden guns to the sky. “South Sudan! Victory!” they cried out, as women ululated. Troops from both sides of …

Jinja, Uganda  | THE INDEPENDENT |  The commandant of Non-Commissioned Officers’ Academy- NCOA, Col. Saad Katemba has stressed the need to renovate dilapidated structures at the college.  The college is comprised of old training halls with leaking roofs and breaking walls which create a poor learning environment for the trainees.  Speaking …

Kano, Nigeria | AFP |  Intense fighting between Nigeria’s army and jihadists over a key northeastern garrison town killed three soldiers and sparked a deadly blaze at a nearby displacement camp, witnesses and security sources said Wednesday. On Tuesday afternoon, dozens of fighters from the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), …

  Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  |  The Uganda People’s Defense Forces –UPDF has introduced new procedures to guarantee transparency in the recruitment of soldiers into the army across the country. The fourth infantry division spokesperson Maj Caesar Olweny says that unlike the past when officers were accused of handpicking relatives …

Bamako, Mali | AFP | Twenty-four Malian soldiers and 17 jihadists fighters were killed in clashes in the east of the country, the army said, as security in the west African nation deteriorates further. Mali and Niger forces were carrying out a joint operation when a patrol was attacked Monday by …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP |  Members of Ethiopia’s Sidama ethnic group are expected to vote Wednesday to form a breakaway regional state — a milestone that risks further destabilising the country ahead of next year’s national elections. The Sidama push for statehood already triggered days of unrest in July that …

Kaabong, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Pt. Jimmy Masaaba, the Uganda Peoples’ Defense Force, UPDF soldier who has been on run in Kaabong has been shot dead by his colleagues. Masaaba reportedly shot dead, Joseph Nyerere, a foreman at the Chinese Construction Camp in Kaabong over the weekend and fled with …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Brig. Samuel Kawagga, the 1st Infantry Division Commander has blamed the increase of HIV infections among soldiers in prostitution. He says most soldiers both at junior and senior levels spend their earnings of prostitutes and in the long run get infected with HIV/AIDS, which reduces …

Mogadishu, Somalia | AFP | More than 10 soldiers died on Sunday and several others were wounded when Al-Qaeda-aligned Shabaab militants stormed a base in southern Somalia, security sources said. The militants drove a truck loaded with explosives to the main entrance of the base in Bulogadud, about 70 kilometres (40 …