By Keefa Nuwahereza
The African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has Wednesday August 5th, 2020 ushered in a new force commander, who welcomed in Mogadishu by senior officers and men of the force.
Lieutenant General Diomede Ndegeya, who arrived in Somalia on Sunday, will lead a force mainly from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. The countries have been enforcing order in Somalia for over a decade now, with support from the United Nations and African Union.
The Commander, who is no stranger to the country, will have to confront the unending Al shaab attacks and the frequent claims of the presence of non-AMISOM troops in Somalia.
With a career spanning 38 years, General Ndegeya, 57, previously served in Somalia from 2007 to 2009, as a member of the Burundi National Defence Forces – AMISOM’s pre-deployment team in-charge of supervising and training.
In 2012, he was part of a reconnaissance mission to the Bay and Bakool regions of Somalia ahead of AMISOM troop deployment there.
He has also worked as a senior advisor to Burundi’s defence minister and published a number of research papers on peacekeeping missions in Africa and professionalisation of the Burundi National Defence Forces, among others.