Uganda says military operation in Somalia still on despite challenges

KAMPALA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The Ugandan military on Monday said its peacekeeping mission in Somalia is still ongoing, refuting reports that the troops are not making progress.

Despite some challenges which are being addressed, the AMISOM remains on course and significant successes have since 2007 been achieved, Brig. Richard Karemire, the Ugandan military spokesman said in a tweet.

AMISOM is an acronym of the African Union Mission in Somalia.

Karemire was responding to a lead story in the local Daily Monitor on Monday quoting David Muhoozi, Uganda's military chief as saying that the military was stuck in the Somali mission.

The report alleged that Ugandan soldiers deployed in the Horn of Africa country to fight the al-Shabab militants are stranded due to underfunding, logistical deficits and a challenged Somali national force.

Uganda was the first to deploy troops in Somalia in March 2007 and still has the largest number of soldiers in the 22,000-strong African Union peacekeeping operation. Other troop contributors include Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.

The troop contributing countries met in Uganda in February this year and urged the international community to support the mission warning that the military gains made may be reversed. Enditem