KAMPALA, Jul 13, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A total of 850 Ugandan soldiers destined for peacekeeping operations in Somalia have ended their training at the army's second division headquarters in the southwestern district of Mbarara, local media reported on Wednesday.
However, Ugandan army commander Gen. Aronda Nyakairima has ordered the soldiers to be redeployed in the north to fight the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels as they wait for the African Union (AU) and the Inter-governmental Authority on Development ( IGAD) decision.
The AU has authorized the IGAD countries, or Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, to send a peacekeeping force to Mogadishu to help Somalia's transitional government relocate to the country.
The Ugandan government has prepared a battalion of 850 soldiers for the peacekeeping mission in the Horn of Africa country.