All Units of the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) have been ordered to be on high alert but no reason has been given a local daily reported early Friday.
In the Military a state of alert is an indication of the state of readiness of the armed forces for military action – it signals that an enemy attack is believed to be imminent.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies UPDF has a total strength of 40,000–48,000 and consisted of land forces and an air wing- however, the real figure could be kept secret for strategic reasons.
The UPDF protects Uganda’s interests at home and abroad. The Uganda army has over 6,000 soldiers serving under AMISOM in Somalia. It also has an undisclosed number of troops deployed in DRC under operation Shuja but military pundits place the number at over 2000 soldiers hunting for ADF rebels.
Uganda Peoples Defence Forces tabled a budget of Shs1.4 trillion (U$372,7million) according to 2020/2021 budget estimates.
President Yoweri Museveni, also Commander in Chief of the Uganda armed forces airlifted from Entebbe airport aboard a military helicopter and later alighted in southern Uganda where he linked up with his official car and convoy enroute to Kigali, Rwanda to attend the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
According to insider sources, the Ugandan leader is expected in Burundi’s administrative capital Gitega after the Kigali CHOGM.
Nobody knows why back home the Uganda military has been placed on high alert across the country. Previously the UPDF has received orders for State of High Alert but only for part of the army in troubled zones especially near the South Sudan border and those troops near DRC border.
“High alert” means the troops are now on what Defense Department officials characterized as a tighter leash, in case deployment orders come quickly.
Uganda is currently on freeze position inside the DRC where its troops have been hunting for the Allied Democratic Front rebels responsible for recurrent terror attacks inside Uganda.
Uganda’s military said last week it had discovered bomb-making material at a training facility for a rebel group allied to ISIL (ISIS) in Kikubajinja zone in Luweero Town Council about 60km outside the capital Kampala.
