As a precautionary measure to control the terrorist acts in the country, Gen. Yoweri Museveni called upon Ugandans to be extra vigilant and report to security authorities any unfamiliar faces they see in their communities. He advised that they take keen interest in new people who access places like lodges , hotels , churches, bars among other public places by quizzing them about their identities.
“As we are hunting for these people in Congo, your job here is to see anybody you don’t know and ask them who they are and report to security authorities.”
For lodges, hotels and other housing estates, the President urged the managers to always ask for National Identity cards and take particulars of all people who access the facilities.
“The moment you block those people from hotels, lodges and housing estates that means, they must stay with families in homes and some of these groups don’t have sympathisers who are willing to risk helping them,” he noted.
“For the buses and markets, you need to search people who are coming in. There’s no shortcut for that. But it will not take long because they are desperate. I don’t know whether to advise them to surrender because even if they surrender, especially the hardcores, we can’t just forgive them, they will have to be held accountable. The only option for them is to surrender or else they will die.”
On the other hand, the President commended President Felix Tshisekedi for giving Uganda permission to hunt for ADF terrorists in the territories of the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying that the move has since enabled them to directly launch offensives against the terrorist group.
“We started operating in sector one and sector two. These are the areas of Congo directly west of Rwenzori Mountain and slightly to the Northwest and we have cleared ADF from those areas. We are working with the Congo army. That area is now totally clear. ADF has been pushed far towards an area called Mambasa. Overall from sector 1 and 2 , the enemies killed are 567, 144 SMGs, 7 machine guns, 6 RPGs, 10 IEDs have been recovered and 50 terrorists have been captured alive and those who surrendered are 32,” he said.
“Now we are engaging our Congolese brothers about what to do next because some of these concepts are not well known in some of these areas. Fortunately, when I last met the Chief of Defence Forces of Congo, just like a week ago, they agreed on the concept of LDUs. Once we have cleared ADF in sector one and two and we move forward to follow them where they are now, they can come back and work behind us and start causing trouble. That is why we need a local force to stay there to make sure that they don’t come back because we have the capacity to ensure that no force hostile to the government of Congo or to our government can congregate anywhere and survive.”
President Museveni ordered the army leadership to use the media to show Ugandans some of the captured terrorists who will also tell their stories to the public.
