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UPDF destroys over 200 tonnes of ammunition
UPDF soldiers inspect the weapons before destroying them at Kabamba barracks in Mubende District on Friday. A total of 280 tonnes of unwanted weapons procured during colonial and Iddi Amin regime, were destroyed. PHOTO BY STEPHEN WANDERA
What you need to know:
Security measure. An envoy who oversaw the exercise, said it was ridding the country of weapons that could pose security threats.
MUBENDE.
The National Focal Point on small arms and weapons has destroyed the last batch of tonnes of ordnance in an exercise that started in April 2013.
Mr Okello Makmott, the NFP commissioner, said the exercise started when the British government provided Shs150 million to support the demolition of over 280 tonnes of unexploded arms.
Mr Makmott was speaking at the last demolition exercise in Karama Military Training School in Kabamba, Mubende District.
He said the exercise marked destruction of 1,500 tonnes of unexploded ordnances and 120,000 pieces of small arms and weapons since 2008.
He described it as the largest such accomplishment in the Great Lakes region.
Ms Alison Blackburne, the British High commissioner to Uganda, commended the army for what she called “a great accomplishment” that rids the country of dangerous ordnances that can fall in hands of criminals or explode and cause harm.
The UK funded the programme and also provided serviceable devices which were used in detonating the explosives.
This puts Uganda ahead of other countries in the region in demolition of unexploded ammunition.
Among the destroyed arms were aircraft bombs, RPG shells and hand grenades bought in 1968 and the 1970s.
Mr Makmott said following the demolition exercise, the NFP shall continue its nationwide exercise to identify and collect more redundant, obsolete and decommissioned stock of arms for demolition.
“This exercise is costly but it reduces the risk of such items falling into wrong hands and exploding causing injuries,” he said.
