CHIMPREPORTS
The Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) have set up a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Eastern Congo.
“Currently, we are at Mukakati where we have established our Forward Operating Base (FOB),” said Maj Gen Kayanja Muhanga, the overall commander of the UPDF forces in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo this Friday.
The operation is codenamed Shujaa, meaning ‘hero’.
Gen Muhanga said UPDF’s FOB is “located about 18 kilometres from the border with Uganda in Busunga.”
He added: “This is where the ground forces will launch the offensive against the ADF.”
A FOB is any secured operational military position that is used to conduct further operations and act as a strategic centre.
Supported by main operating bases, FOBs may or may not include a hospital, airfield, or machine shop.
FOBs are traditionally supported by Main Operating Bases that are required to provide backup support to them.
Muhanga doubles as the commander of the Mountain Division which is based in Kabarole district.
A FOB improves reaction time to local areas as opposed to having all troops on the main operating base.
Muhanga, who previously commanded UPDF’s operations in Somalia and South Sudan, disclosed that UPDF’s FOB is located about 9 kilometers from the Semliki bridge.
The ADF rebels are said to have been operating in the Semliki area.
The bridge will allow UPDF to cross the 140-km Semliki River which flows north from Lake Edward in Beni Territory, Nord-Kivu, D.R.C, avoiding the Rwenzori Mountains on its Right (East) and emptying into Lake Albert in the Albertine Rift, Irumu Territory, Ituri Province, D.R.C.
River Semliki’s mouth is near the Village of Katolingo in Kanara sub county, Ntoroko district, Uganda.
Along its lower reaches, the river meanders extensively forming part of the international border between the DRC and the western Ugandan districts of Bundibugyo and Ntoroko, near the Semuliki National Park.
Commenting on Tuesday’s bombardments of ADF camps by UPDF, Muhanga said “the enemy was seriously punished by the airforce and artillery and they have a lot of casualties.”
He also said the duration of Operation Shujaa will be determined by the military’s strategic objective – “to defeat the rebels and their will to fight”.
Muhanga said the UPDF and Congolese forces intend to “create a conductive situation to allow smooth trade between the two countries and prosperity of the peoples of Uganda and DRC.”
“We promise that we are ready to jointly to defeat the terrorists and bring peace back to eastern DRC,” said Muhanga, a brother of prominent journalist Andrew Mwenda and State Minister for Primary Healthcare, Margaret Muhanga.
The ADF, which is blamed for the November 2021 bomb attacks in Kampala, has been operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo for more than three decades.
The IS-linked terrorist group has killed more than 1,000 civilians since the start of 2019, according to United Nations.
Muhanga said one of the ADF camps bombed by ADF is Tondoli, about 120 kilometres south of the city of Bunia, where the militants killed 20 people in September this year.
source https://perilofafrica.com/2021/12/photos-updf-establishes-forward-operating-base-inside-drc.html