Mission accomplished: UPDF’s journey home

The awaited day. After nearly two years in the battle field, the UPDF soldiers are more than relieved as they board army trucks for that last trip from South Sudan back home. Risdel Kasasira travels with them and documents the journey.

At Juba Airport, a team of Ugandan journalists is welcomed by former UPDF commander of Operations in South Sudan, Col Moses Kwikiriza.
They had hoped to meet and interview Brig Muhanga Kayanja, the former overall UPDF commander in South Sudan on the evening of October 29.
But Col Kwikiriza says: “No interviews, no cameras. I know you are tired. Go to the hotel, shower, eat, drink and sleep. The interviews will be tomorrow.”

No heroic send off
The journalists had been briefed before they left for Juba that President Salvar Kiir was going to be the chief guest but Col Kwikiriza says there will be no formal function to see off the Ugandan soldiers.
Before leaving for the hotel, he tells journalists that they would, on the following day, have “enough time” with the commanders, including; the Commander Land Forces, Maj Gen David Muhoozi, whom they had not known was also around.
By 6am the following day, the journalists were again at the UPDF base.

It is still a bit dark but soldiers are packing and readying to leave. Dim candle light and torches can be seen from different directions inside the grass-thatched houses scattered over the base.
Usually, when at a military bases, journalists are not allowed to film without permission. But this time round, they film freely and take photos of soldiers carrying their bags, plastic jerrycans and basins, bullets and guns.
By 8am, most soldiers have collected their belongings and camped near Brig Muhanga’s office, located a few metres from the new expanded part of the airport.

The soldiers are pacing up in different directions. Only one thing is visible —excitement to go back home. Some have been here for nearly two years and would get permission once a year to visit their families.
“Lero abe Mubende bajja kukulabako” [your relatives in Mubende will see you today] one soldier tells his colleague, who is carrying a PK gun on his shoulders with a finger loosely touching the trigger, and another hand carrying a box of bullets. As they assemble, SPLA soldiers come in to take charge of the base.
Pte Bashir Wogido has been in South Sudan since January 2014, and visited his family twice. He says communication with his wife back home is not easy because of expensive phone calls to Uganda.

“A minute used to cost Shs3,500. But it reduced to Shs350 after the South Sudan government opened our network. I am very happy that we are leaving. It will be easier for me to visit my family,” he says.
His unit fought once with the rebels in January 2014, but does not want to talk about it. “Since then, we have been training. In UPDF, when you are not fighting, you are training,” he says
Like Wogido, Capt Siraj Ssekito says the withdrawal is long overdue. “Back home, our families have been asking when we shall ever withdraw. But it has finally come,” he says.
He was among the first soldiers to be deployed in South Sudan and he is a civil military relations officer, whose role is to bond relations between the military and civilians. His unit fought rebels in Pariak, where many rebels were killed.
In fact, some military sources describe this battle as a massacre. It is said hundreds of the rebels were killed and UPDF says it lost nine soldiers.

UPDF soldiers were ambushed as they advanced towards Bor. But they beat back the ambush using superior firepower of tanks, mambas and other artillery weapons. They later deployed air force that attacked the rebel positions and pushed them into disarray.
Soldiers who participated in that battle say the bodies of the rebels lay stinking along the sides of the road. Dogs and birds were seen all over eating the bodies before they were buried in mass graves.

“We were moving from Nesitu to Bor. We engaged the enemy in areas of Jemeza and Pariak and gave them a “doze” before we advanced to Bor,” he says in a calculated tone.
In Bor, he was a linkman between the refugees in the UN camps, Ugandans working in Bor Town and UPDF. “My role was to know their problems and see how to handle them in consultation with my bosses,”
Getting supplies in Bor was hard during rainy seasons because the roads would be inaccessible. The only option would be choppers to supply food, water and medicine to the forward bases.

Satisfied by work
As they withdraw, Capt Ssekito says he is a happy soldier for what UPDF did for the South Sudanese and hopes the warring parties settle their differences through continued negotiations.
As this interaction with the soldier gets to the end, a South Sudan soldier, Pte Keer Nyarot comes to greet and say bye to Capt Ssekito, four Lieutenants, three other Captains who are seated together as they wait for the trucks to transport them back home.

After greeting them, Pte Nyarot and the eight UPDF soldiers engage in a debate on the political future of South Sudan. One Lieutenant tells Nyarot: “We are leaving, but be united, and our wish for South Sudanese is to put your country first, not tribes. We lost our brothers here for you to get peace. It would be painful to see violence again in South Sudan.”
In response, Nyarot responds: “I can relate our situation to a hyena that comes stealthily at night and steals goats. If you don’t secure the goats, the hyenas will always come at night and kill them. If the top leadership does not put in place measure to solve the problems facing South Sudan, violence will resume.”

He says the ultimate choice to end violence lies with the South Sudanese. “It is us, the South Sudanese to end the violence. We are killing ourselves and it is up to us to end the killings,” Nyarot adds.
All the UPDF soldiers agree with him. But some look shocked to hear such a “brilliant” analogy from Nyarot.
Another Lieutenant asks Nyarot where he comes from and where he attended school. He tells them he studied from Uganda from Seniour one to Seniour Six.

The Lieutenant tells his colleagues in Luganda: “Kyeko kyaba ategela ebintu bulungi” [That is why his understanding is different].
Nyarot shakes hands with all the officers and leaves to join his South Sudanese colleagues, who are standing a few meters away.
Asked why they think Nyarot’s thinking was different from his other colleagues,’ one captain says: “Everything here is seen through a tribal lens. It is rare to find someone like him who thinks violence is a national problem without blaming another tribe.”

Setting off
As the debate comes to an end, nine trucks, which the soldiers were waiting for, arrive from Uganda, and the soldiers start loading their belongings.
Journalists also board a Toyota coaster and drive ahead after Col Kwikiriza tells the driver of the coaster that he is supposed to refuel from Nesitu, about 23km from Juba on the road to Uganda and his vehicle must set off before the UPDF convoy.
At Nesitu, there are nine UPDF tanks on carriers and eight tucks transporting the tank crew setting off for journey back home.
The convoy sets off from Nesitu at midday for the more than 370km journey to Uganda.
Along the way, children at trading centres wave at the withdrawing soldiers and many look mesmerised by the sophisticated weapons, which probably they are seeing for the first time.

Kony village
On this Juba-Nimule road, there are areas where the Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) had established big bases before South Sudan became independent. Even some places were named after Kony like “Kony Village”, which is about 100kms from Juba.
In this area, Kony had a very big camp with schools for abducted children, hospitals and training camps, according to an SPLA republican guard, Lt Kiir Manyok.

After Kony Village, the convoy reaches Aru junction, where UPDF fought fierce battles with LRA during Operation Iron Fist commanded by the late minister of Internal Affairs, Gen Aronda Nyakairima. UPDF also had base at the strategic town which is the busiest between Nimule and Juba.
Ugandan traders stand by the roadside to say bye to UPDF soldiers. The convoy stops for a few minutes and the Ugandans vending grilled chicken and grasshoppers as boda boda riders, shopkeepers swarm the convoy to greet the withdrawing soldiers.

Ugandans grateful
One woman shouts in Luganda: “Olutalo bwe luddamu Museveni ajja tukima” [If fighting breaks out, Museveni will rescue us].
The convoy snakes through sharp corners, open terrains at Kit and Nyoro, where Gen Aronda commanded battles against the LRA 13 years ago.
The convoy crosses the border into Uganda after 5pm.
At the border, Ugandan traders and boda boda riders in Lego line up to welcome the soldiers. The last truck of the convoy enters Uganda at around 5.45pm.
These soldiers are stationed in Bibia, others in Palaro in Amuru before they are redeployed in different parts of the country