Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has issued a directive to the security agencies to reintroduce civilian military training for the Ugandan populace. This is a major step by the East African country to deal with the Al-Shabaab militants looming in the region.
The president announced this in the state-owned paper saying that despite the fact that the Al-Shabaab had been defeated by AMISOM troops it was necessary for the civilians to be able to protect themselves.
Uganda and her neighbor Kenya have the largest number of troops in Somalia that are fighting the Al-Shabaab militants there. Uganda has at least 6000 troops in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab has made several attempts on Uganda among them bomb attacks in Kampala that claimed 76 lives. In the press release the President Museveni referred to Al-Shabaab as ‘the Idiots’.
The president was keen to note that Al-Shabaab was not the only security threat in the country and that the Ugandans needed to be able to stay safe and a bit of civilian military training would be the trick.
This program is not new in Uganda as in the 80s and 90s Ugandan school leavers were required to attend national service for 2 years before joining college. This civilian military training is going to aid in the efforts to collective security of the East African State. It was however noted that there were no plans to arm the civilians.
Al-Shabaab has become a region problem in the East Africa and countries in the region are putting up measures, policies and strategies to shun the militia from their countries with Kenya even erecting a security wall to completely seal their border with Somalia.
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Kenya must also introduce mandatory civilian military training as well as enhance intelligence gathering by leveraging Big Data science.