KAMPALA (NEW VISION) - Belgian and French army instructors are training the Ugandan army for deployment in Somalia under the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission, dubbed AMISOM.

The 1,600 soldiers are undergoing training in convoy escorting, land mine sweeping, detection of explosives, cordon and search operations, check point monitoring and self-defence.

“My mission in Uganda is to train the over 1,600 UPDF soldiers to be deployed in Mogadishu in May. The training will take five weeks,” Lt. Col. Rousselle Gabriel, the head of the foreign instructors, said.

He added that there were 35 instructors from France and two from Belgium.

Rousselle was briefing the visiting ambassadors from Belgium and France, Marc Gedopt and Rene Forceville, at the Singo army training school in Luwero on Friday.

“The soldiers are also being trained in carrying out first aid during combat, evacuting the victims to a safe areas, short distance shooting range and self-defence using martial arts,” Rousselle stated.

The visitors were received at the training school by the commandant, Col. Christopher Bbosa. He said American army instructors will take over training from February 15.

The Belgian ambassador said the agreement for the 37 instructors to train UPDF was signed between Uganda and France. He said Belgium was only giving support to the French instructors, especially in the area of land mine clearing.

“The two governments want the UPDF to increase their capacity in military operations in Mogadishu where there are a lot of risks and danger to their lives.”

He said the acquired skills will help them in other peacekeeping operations, either under the AU or UN.

The French ambassador observed that the Ugandan soldiers are doing a good job in Somalia.

“We have no problem supporting a peacekeeping mission in Somalia,” Forceville said.

He said his government was also giving scholarships to soldiers to learn French and to study at other African army schools.

Maj. Maiga Oumarou, an instructor from the School of Peacekeeping in Bamako, Mali, said the institute was training soldiers to form the International African Standby-Force.