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Somali mother
looks for her UPDF lover.
(Kampala, Aug 25,
2008 Ceegaag Online)
A
Somali mother is in Kampala looking for a UPDF soldier who
she says fathered her four-month-old baby-boy. The
23-year-old Nino Omar Ibrahim arrived five days ago after a
one-week journey from war-torn Somalia.
The situation back home, she said, had forced her to search
for the father of her son who was one of the 1,600 Ugandan
peace-keepers deployed in Mogadishu.
“I met him when I took my father, Sheik Ibrahim Omar, for
treatment at the AMISOM hospital in Mogadishu,” said the
frail-looking Nino.
While she searches for the soldier, Nino has taken refuge in
Kisenyi, the Kampala slum which has most Somali refugees.
“I
love the father of my boy. All I need is to get in touch
with him for assistance. I need him that is why I came. My
child is a Ugandan but I feared being killed due to this
act. I am safer here,” she said.
Under Islamic law, which operates in some parts of Somalia,
a woman may be killed for having sex out of wedlock. Nino,
who says she gets help from Hussein Hassan, the chairman of
the Somali community here, wants the UPDF to help her.
Army spokesman Maj. Paddy Ankunda, who met Nino at his Mbuya
offices on Friday, promised to help. He identified the
officer as Joshua Asiza, a medical worker.
“We want him to take responsibility and take care of the boy
and the mother. They need help,” Ankunda said. “If he denies
responsibility, that will be another matter.”
Ankunda would not say what sentence or charges the officer
would face if he declined to take responsibility. But he
added that if Asiza fathered the child, he breached the army
code of conduct.
“We have guidelines to follow while on a peace mission
especially abroad. In the UPDF, we don’t condone
indiscipline.” Asiza, a Warrant Officer II, was part
of the first batch of the African Union peace-keeping force
in the war-torn Somalia.
He refused to take his calls yesterday. President Museveni
had warned the officers to desist from “immoral acts”.
Meeting them in Kimaka, Jinja, before their departure,
Museveni said: “You are leaving while healthy. Don’t go and
start irresponsible behavior that will see you contract
HIV/AIDS.”
During the UPDF mission in DR Congo, many Congolese women,
along with children, followed the officers back to Uganda
after the mission ended. Many settled down with the soldiers
as married couples.
Source: New Vision
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