Uganda's military in Somalia, 2007 to 2027

In short

Uganda has sent troops to Somalia under every African Union mission since 2007 and has usually had the largest contingent. This page records what the sources report about that deployment. For the missions as a whole, see AMISOM, ATMIS and AUSSOM. It is part of Foreign forces in Somalia. Al-Shabaab's attacks inside the country are covered in Al-Shabaab's attacks in Uganda and Kenya.

Arrival, March 2007

The first Ugandan troops landed at Mogadishu airport on 6 March 2007, the first foreign peacekeepers in the city since the UN left in 1995. Mortar fire hit the airport during their welcoming ceremony, and later attacks with rockets and grenades killed ten people, according to a Medina hospital official; the AU and Somalia's deputy defence minister said the Ugandans had no casualties. About 800 had arrived within two days. Aden Hashi Ayro, speaking as an Islamic Courts commander, called in an audio tape for Somali youth to fight what he called the occupation by Ethiopia and others (Al Jazeera, 8 March 2007). See Ethiopia's military in Somalia.

The largest contingent

The Council on Foreign Relations records that Uganda was the first contributor to AMISOM and kept the largest contingent (CFR, Al-Shabaab backgrounder). Ugandan and Burundian troops, with Somali forces, pushed al-Shabaab out of Mogadishu in 2011 (see AMISOM). At its largest AMISOM listing, Uganda had 6,223 troops, and in AUSSOM it was allotted 4,500, the most of any country (see AUSSOM).

Losses

• Janaale, 1 September 2015. Al-Shabaab overran a Ugandan base in Lower Shabelle (see AMISOM).
• Buulo Mareer, 26 May 2023. Al-Shabaab overran a Ugandan camp after suicide car bombs. Uganda's president said 54 Ugandan soldiers were killed; al-Shabaab claimed 137. It was the deadliest attack on Ugandan troops since 2007 (Mapping Militant Organizations, Stanford University). See ATMIS.

Golweyn, 2021

On 10 August 2021 Ugandan troops patrolling the supply route between Beldamin and Golweyn, about 120 km southwest of Mogadishu, fired on civilians at a farm. AMISOM said at first that its forces had broken up an al-Shabaab ambush; relatives and witnesses accused the soldiers of placing some of the bodies on remotely controlled mines and detonating them, which set off protests in Mogadishu. In October AMISOM admitted that its troops had unlawfully killed seven civilians. A Ugandan military court sitting at Halane camp in Mogadishu from 5 October convicted five soldiers: two were sentenced to death and three to 39 years in prison. Somalia's justice minister, Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur, announced the verdict, and the families' spokesman said they expected compensation (VOA, 13 November 2021). In October 2022 Uganda's appeals court replaced the two death sentences, of Captain Charles Asiimwe and Corporal Edison Bwambale, with 20-year terms, cut two other sentences to 16 years on the ground that the soldiers had followed orders, and freed Corporal Alexander Babu because witnesses had not implicated him. The judge said the court martial "might have been influenced by the reaction or riots" (Garowe Online, 15 October 2022).

Human Rights Watch's 2014 report on sexual exploitation by AU troops named the main AMISOM base near the airport, run largely by Ugandan troops, as one of the places where abuses occurred (see AMISOM).

Withdrawal, 2026–2027

In late October 2026 Uganda's army chief, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, announced that Uganda was "handing over security to our Somali brothers". The first group of 109 soldiers left Mogadishu, and the BBC reported that the withdrawal of the about 4,500 Ugandan troops in the AU mission would be carried out in phases and completed in August 2027. About 2,000 Ugandan troops deployed under a separate bilateral arrangement were to remain. The BBC noted that AUSSOM's funding was uncertain (BBC via Graphic Online, 2 November 2026).

Sources differ

• Buulo Mareer deaths. 54 (Uganda's president) or 137 (al-Shabaab).
• Golweyn. AMISOM first described an ambush; it later admitted seven civilians were killed unlawfully.
• Golweyn sentences. Death for two soldiers (court martial, 2021); 20 years for those two on appeal (2022).

Read the primary sources yourself

• Voice of America, "Two Ugandan soldiers sentenced to death in Somalia" (2021): article.
• Al Jazeera, "AU troops under attack in Mogadishu" (2007): article.
• BBC via Graphic Online, "Uganda begins withdrawing troops from Somalia after 20 years" (2026): article.