The pilot held firm and landed the huge plane, bringing it to a jarring stop after a hair-raising taxiing under sustained fire. Weapons cocked and held at the ready, exits were flung open and the very first men of UGABAG1 started pouring out of the craft
The sound of high explosive going off on or around the runway would probably have been echoing from below; through the aircraft’s tiny windows puffs of black smoke could possibly be seen billowing up from the airport. Also, the unmistakable heavy and rapid thump of mounted machine guns was likely rumbling through the air …
It is March 6, 2007, and this was Mogadishu International Airport, or at least what is left of it after years of fighting for it between rival clans. When the al-Shabaab terrorist group’s fighters saw the plane coming in to land, they did something that would churn many a stomach; they started shelling the runway with mortar rounds and raking the skies with small arms fire.
The pilot held firm and landed the huge plane, bringing it to a jarring stop after a hair-raising taxiing under sustained fire. Weapons cocked and held at the ready, exits were flung open and the very first men of UGABAG1 started pouring out of the craft.
Their only protection on the ground was the covering fire from four infantry fighting vehicles (Mambas) which the UPDF had covertly moved to Somalia ahead of zero hour.
Lucky escape
That none of the arriving troops was injured or killed on the first landing will always remain a very welcome miracle. Some put it down to the fact that the al-Shabaab’s aim may have been put off by the heavy machine gunfire the four Mambas were directing at their positions. Others just think lady luck was smiling on the Ugandans that day.
It was a variation of this sort of welcome for each of the other flights which made the two anda half hour flight from Entebbe to Mogadishu delivering the first mission force.
Upon landing with his troops, Brig Peter Elwelu, who was the contingent commander, was shown a location covered in sand dunes where it was proposed that he would set up his base. These sand dunes are about one kilometre away from the airport. They are also very close to the sea.
Immediately, the soldier in him came alert. Brig Elwelu was not impressed with the location from a tactical point of view. In fact, he was a little shaken. The site was clearly rife with all sorts of weaknesses; the base would be hopelessly exposed and trapped if a flanking enemy force decided to move in on them.
“I didn’t sleep the whole night. I realised we would be wiped out because it was a narrow place in the middle of the sand dunes. In case of an attack, there was no way we would get out,” he says during the long conversations he held with Daily Monitor for this series.
The restless night eventually ended and daylight finally broke for what should have been a very relieved commanding officer. Brig Elwelu and his corp of officers quickly set about scouting for a more defendable location at which the main base could be set up.
“I jumped into the vehicle with one of my operations commanders and started looking around until we saw a bush. It was real bush. I said this would be the right place to be. I immediately moved my troops to this new home,” he said.
Over the years, this site has been developed and is now proudly known as the Halane Base Camp, headquarters of Amisom, UN personnel and all humanitarian agencies. This camp would be the envy of any warfaring troop. There are many Algaroba growing in the area. These thorny, drought-resistant trees, planted by the Americans during the early 1990s for use as concealment, still serve that very useful purpose to this day.
Halane is also just about one kilometre from the airport. This proximity would prove itself to be a very good thing in the days, weeks, months and years of this operation.
In just the same week after UGABAG1 landed in Mogadishu, Ethiopian forces that had been protecting the shaky Transitional Federal Government decided it was time to withdraw from the key government installations they were guarding. UGABAG1 thus almost immediately found itself having to draw on the skills imparted unto them during the training in Singo Military Training School.
The Daily Monitor
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