Ugandan Army Officer Gets 200 Death Threats Daily!

[rudy-Diiriye]

waji bir!! lol.

 

THE spokesperson of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Major Barigye Ba-hoku, is arguably the most threatened person in the world.

 

His phone rings every three minutes. “This is al Shabaab,” says an ever-changing voice. Then the abuses start, and the death threats.

 

But Ba-Hoku, a seasoned UPDF officer, has grown used to them.

“I get about 200 of them per day,” he says. “I also received 1,800 messages on my phone. I have downloaded them. I want to keep them.”

 

sitting in front of his container at the AMISOM base near Mogadishu Airport, he picks his umpteenth call of the day.

“This is Somali al Shabaab. I will kill you tomorrow,” says a man in English.

“How will that solve your problem?” Ba-Hoku asks. “Can I bring myself so that you don’t waste your time looking for me?”

 

The caller, clearly confused, switches off.

Within seconds, a message comes in. “Peace of Allah be upon you, Barigye-Bahoku,” it reads. “In reality, we are very sorry you are staying in Somalia. If Allah says, we shall kill you as we are the soldiers of Islam.”

 

The next caller is a woman. “Go, go, go!” she shouts. “Go (to) your country! Gal (infidel)!”

“Do you know how many Somalis are in Uganda?” Ba-Hoku asks calmly. “We have never bothered to chase them away because they are our brothers.”

 

She switches off. Two messages roll in almost simultaneously.

 

One says: “You are going to lost (lose) you life very soon.”

 

The other reads: “I believe I will one day be strong Somali president and I shall make all Ugandan people our slaves! God curse Uganda! God delete Ugandan existence!”

Ba-Hoku shrugs when asked if they don’t wear him down. “They must have bad instructors,” he simply says.

 

“They don’t change their tactics. They have applied this tactic for the last one and a half years and it has not had any impact.”

He does not want to ignore them either. “Sometimes we get clues from them. And it is a way to engage them. One has now become my friend.”

 

The hate campaign by al Shabaab, a jihadist group of youngsters linked to Al Qaeda, is only one of the problems the Ugandan peacekeepers, who make up the bulk of the 4,300 strong AU force, are facing in Somalia.

 

Disinformation is another. “We are dealing with a media that are intimidated, blackmailed and threatened,” says Ba-Hoku.

 

“They cannot put out messages in support of AMISOM. This year alone, we have had six Somali journalists killed; that is one per month.”

By eliminating and terrorising independent journalists, al Shabaab have effectively taken over cyberspace and managed modern information warfare.

 

This psychological war, which AMISOM commanders find more difficult to handle than the military part, is aimed at portraying the peacekeepers as foreign occupiers and enemies of Islam, and eventually bringing about their withdrawal. A strange disease which has affected over 50 Burundian peacekeepers was quickly attributed to poisoning by al Shabaab.

 

Yet, a Nairobi hospital which diagnosed some of the patients found leptospirosis, a bacterial infection spread by rats.

 

Part of the propaganda spread by al Shabaab is that the newly elected president, Sharif Ahmed, is a Western stooge and that the capital Mogadishu is about to fall in the hands of the Islamist insurgents.

 

But when touring the bombed-out city in a mamba, people were seen going about their business seemingly undisturbed, pushing wheelbarrows, selling goods at markets or drinking tea at roadside restaurants.

 

Several ships were being offloaded at the seaport, bringing in food and fuel from India, Dubai and China, and an average of eight planes per day land at Mogadishu Airport.

Thanks to the additional Burundian troops, AMISOM has extended its control over the capital from the sea coast up to Mogadishu University.

 

Most remarkable was the absence of gunfire and mortar explosions, which had been a common phenomenon in the Somali capital for the last two decades.

 

Apart from one gunshot near the presidential palace and a few test shells at the AMISOM base, the air remained conspicuously quiet during our 26-hour stay in the capital.

“Contrary to the propaganda, only two of the 16 districts in the Benadir region, which make Mogadishu, are in the hands of the opposition forces,” says the AMISOM spokesperson.

 

While the situation might not be as dramatic as portrayed by al Shabaab, the threat posed by the Jihadists, who have been boosted by an influx of foreign fighters, is nevertheless real and omnipresent.

Two weeks ago, three Ugandan soldiers were killed by a mortar shell as they were guarding the presidential palace, known as Villa Somalia.

 

The next day, Ugandan peacekeepers took part in a battle to repulse insurgents which had come up to half a kilometre from State House. Some 40 insurgents were reportedly killed in the joint Somali forces and AMISOM offensive.

 

But Ba-Hoku downplayed the operation: “What we did was to take limited action to ensure the safety of our troops and ensure that our supply route remained open. It was merely a show of force, and it worked.”

 

Not a change of mandate is needed to secure Mogadishu, the force commander, Gen. Francis Okello, emphasised, but more troops and better equipment.

 

“We may not necessarily need to change the mandate from chapter 6 to chapter 7 (allowing for the peacekeepers to use force to protect the population),” Okello told journalists outside his headquarters on Friday.

“What we lack is enough troops. We need soldiers on the ground. Apart from that, we need equipment. There are several threats which AMISOM is facing — roadside bombs, mines as well as mortar fire. We need better protection. We also need more patrol boats and armoured personnel carriers.”

 

But he categorically denied media reports that Mogadishu was being besieged and about to be captured by al Shabaab.

 

“Some people are claiming that the Somali government is about to fall. I can assure you that as long as AMISOM is here, the transitional federal government will not collapse.”

 

See full interview in tomorrow’s The New Vision

 

Who are al Shabaab?

Al Shabaab, meaning youth, began as an armed wing of the Union of Islamic Courts, which briefly ruled Somalia in 2006.

 

The Islamic Courts had restored a tenuous calm in Mogadishu before they were swept from power in December 2006 by Ethiopian forces, backed by the US, because of their purported links with Al Qaeda.

 

If anything, the Ethiopian intervention radicalised and strengthened al Shabaab, and hardened their links with global jihad and Al Qaeda.

 

In the past few years, their numbers have risen from a few hundred to several thousand fighters. The insurgents have been boosted recently by an influx of foreign fighters who see Somalia as the next battleground for holy war (jihad).

 

Somalia’s president, Sharif Ahmed, estimates the number of foreign fighters at over 2,000. But the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) and Western intelligence sources think there are fewer.

 

Some foreign fighters come from Pakistan and Afghanistan, while others are Americans, Britons and Italians of Somali origin.

 

The group’s slick internet propaganda echoes Al Qaeda, threatening to kill foreign peacekeeping troops and chasing out humanitarian agencies, accusing them of being ‘enemies of Islam’.

 

Like Al Qaeda, the insurgents have adopted suicide bombings as one of their tactics. A total of 11 Burundian peacekeepers were killed in a suicide attack outside their base in February.

 

And last month, a teenage suicide bomber blew up Somalia’s interior minister as well as the ambassador designate to South Africa. Loosely arranged in cells of 20 to 30 fighters, Shabaab now control most of south and central Somalia.

 

In areas under their control, they impose a brutal reign of terror, characterised by beheadings of people accused of being collaborators of the government or Western organisations, and double amputations of suspected thieves.

 

Shopkeepers who show Western films or play pop music are attacked with grenades. Aid workers and foreign journalists are being kidnapped for ransoms.

 

Last week, two French military advisers were lifted from their hotel in central Mogadishu, with Shabaab now threatening to bring them before a Sharia court.

 

Across the country, the insurgents get a lot of cash from taxes, the profits of pirates, extortion and donations from Arabs and Somalis in the diaspora.

 

Machineguns, anti-tank mines weapons and landmines have been flown into airstrips controlled by the insurgents.

 

The international community has accused Eritrea of being the main transit route for arms and fighters to the Somali insurgents, and providing instructors for their training camps.

 

But other countries are believed to supply al Shabaab with cash and arms. The Enough Project accuses Libya, Qatar and Iran of actively supporting the insurgents.

 

The group’s political agenda keeps changing. The insurgents at first demanded the withdrawal of the Ethiopian army from Somalia and the introduction of Sharia.

 

Now that both demands have been granted, they want the departure of the AU peacekeepers

Insiders say Shabaab fighters are recruited and kept through a mixture of brainwashing, coercion and cash benefits.

 

Young men of between 17 and 20 are first lured by money, they are said to receive a monthly pay of $300, and then stirred by lectures and sermons into a desire of martyrdom.

 

“They don’t have a political agenda,” says President Sharif Ahmed. “They just want to control Somalia and hand it over to global terrorists.”

 

Source: New Vision, July 25, 2009

hiiraan.com

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

“This is Somali al Shabaab. I will kill you tomorrow,” says a man in English.

“How will that solve your problem?” Ba-Hoku asks. “Can I bring myself so that you don’t waste your time looking for me?”

 

The caller, clearly confused, switches off.

Within seconds, a message comes in. “Peace of Allah be upon you, Barigye-Bahoku,” it reads. “In reality, we are very sorry you are staying in Somalia. If Allah says, we shall kill you as we are the soldiers of Islam.”

 

The next caller is a woman. “Go, go, go!” she shouts. “Go (to) your country! Gal (infidel)!”

“Do you know how many Somalis are in Uganda?” Ba-Hoku asks calmly. “We have never bothered to chase them away because they are our brothers.”

 

She switches off. Two messages roll in almost simultaneously.

 

One says: “You are going to lost (lose) you life very soon.”

 

The other reads: “I believe I will one day be strong Somali president and I shall make all Ugandan people our slaves! God curse Uganda! God delete Ugandan existence!”

Ba-Hoku shrugs when asked if they don’t wear him down. “They must have bad instructors,” he simply says.

Desperados, sida wanaagsan loo hadla xataa garaneynin, asluubnimana ha sheeginba. Markaas diinteena suuban inay ku dhaqmaan kuu sii sheeganayaan.

[Peace Action]

Somalis and their mentality. When are they going to learn that killing and destroying is easy but cowardly but working for peace and progress is noble and courageous.

[Geel_jire]

journalism is dead

 

they are no longer even attempting to feign objectivity and as a result you get this sort of drivel.

 

The hate campaign by al Shabaab, a jihadist group of youngsters linked to Al Qaeda, is only one of the problems the Ugandan peacekeepers, who make up the bulk of the 4,300 strong AU force, are facing in Somalia.

hate campaign ?? what melodramatic BS they are engaged in a war .. it is a given they they hate and despise these mercenaries.

 

Part of the propaganda spread by al Shabaab is that the newly elected president, Sharif Ahmed, is a Western stooge and that the capital Mogadishu is about to fall in the hands of the Islamist insurgents.

this is a legitimate claim of Al-shabaab .. he refers to it as propaganda and .. which is what his entire article is .. dressed up as news no less.

 

 

If anything, the Ethiopian intervention radicalised and strengthened al Shabaab, and hardened their links with global jihad and Al Qaeda.

this is the same pathetic excuse that was used by Abdullahi amxaar against sharif .. sharif hotel and amisom are getting their @sses handed to them by somali fighters .. no amount of imaginary global Terrorists will change that.

 

In areas under their control, they impose a brutal reign of terror, characterised by beheadings of people accused of being collaborators of the government or Western organisations, and double amputations of suspected thieves.

this one has to be the most absurd BS that he has come up with .. he is just pulling this crap right out of his @ss.

 

any objective person can see that the areas under the complete control of al-shabaab have never seen the peace and tranquilty and justice that the are currently expereincing ... where citizens are not afraid of murders, rapists, and street bandits.

 

Young men of between 17 and 20 are first lured by money, they are said to receive a monthly pay of $300, and then stirred by lectures and sermons into a desire of martyrdom.

this bullsh!t is just too much.

 

I would advise this "journalist " to find work in a field where he might have some skills i.e shoveling sh!t

[Haatu]

imaginary global terrorists

Hah. Talk about pathetic.

 

somali fighters

Load of rubbish. Most of them are foreigners and dissalusioned kids.

[Fabregas]

LOl, these dudes neeed more creative prank callers.