Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has flagged off the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) contingent to Somalia, sternly warning the soldiers against illicit love affairs with Somali women.

President Museveni was quoted by the state owned New Vision on Friday saying that the army is going to Somalia not to do the job of the Somalis, but to help them to do their job.

He said the biggest mission is to train the Somali army, and may decide to disarm any group still holding guns illegally.

"We are there to empower our Somali brothers to rebuild their state and their army, and that is our main job," the president said.

He warned the troops against illicit love affairs with Somali women.

"I have heard that you went to doctors who found out that you do not have these dudus (HIV/AIDS). Take care of your lives when you go to Somalia."

In Uganda's last peacekeeping mission in Liberia, UPDF soldiers are said to have engaged in wild, illicit affairs.

President Museveni as the commander-in-chief of the army handed over the country's flag to the head of the contingent comprising 1, 605 soldiers, Col. Peter Elwelu, amid dancing, loud cheers and clapping from officers and men of the UPDF at Gaddafi Barracks in Jinja, eastern Uganda, said the report.

Several dozen train wagons loaded with tanks, armored personnel carriers, heavy weaponry and trucks began a journey to Somalia on Thursday from the Uganda Railways main terminal in Kampala. The freight is expected to arrive in Somalia in eight days.

The president asked the soldiers to cooperate with African peacekeepers from Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, South Africa and Burundi.

Uganda is the first country to send peacekeepers to volatile Somalia where the transitional government is striving to restore stability after it ousted militants of the Union of Islamic Courts, who used to control a big part of the country.

The peacekeepers are deployed under the African Union mission to Somalia (AMISOM). The AU has so far raised only half of the proposed 8,000 peacekeepers.

Somalia has lacked an effective central authority since the 1991 ouster of military strongman Mohamed Siad Barre.

Source: Xinhua