The Ugandan troops, serving in Somalia under the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM), have recovered an assortment of arms and ammunition in a voluntary disarmament exercise in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

Capt. Paddy Ankunda, the spokesman for AMISOM, was quoted by the state-owned New Vision on Monday as saying that the troops recovered over 2,000 mines, over 200 guns and three mounted battle- wagons in the exercise which started a week ago.

"We have received 2,128 mines, three technicals, 201 SMG (sub- machine-guns) rifles, six pistols, four 12.7mm guns, three 23mm guns, one 76mm gun and one anti-aircraft gun," said Ankunda.

He said most of the weapons were received from businessmen in Mogadishu, who used to have their own militias to protect their lives and businesses and were also the main arms traders.

"The weapons are being brought in mainly by members of the business community. We did some mobilization and they have responded to our call to disarm."

He said the collected weapons are being documented and will later be destroyed to avoid suspicion that they might be given to other warlords.

"We register and document them and keep them in safe custody. In due course, they will be destroyed in the presence of the public so that there is no suspicion that they will end up in the hands of another clan."

He said the voluntary disarmament is a sign of confidence that peace is returning to the capital which has faced fierce fighting in recent weeks.

"We know that there is a plan of some elements to use landmines and car bombs to disrupt the present peace. But so far they have been unsuccessful. In last week we were able to disable three landmines which had been reported to us by civilians," he said.

Ankunda called upon other countries which have pledged to send peacekeepers to Somalia not to let this momentum pass.

"The only thing which is missing is for the other contributing countries like Nigeria, Burundi and Ghana to move in. If they could come here soon, they could tap into this support," he said.

Prof. Alpha Oumar Konare, the chairperson of the African Union Commission, recently urged African leaders to act fast and send peacekeepers to the volatile country, warning that the situation there could get worse.

Uganda is so far the only country that has sent some 1,500 peacekeepers to Somalia under AMISOM. Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, South Africa and Burundi which pledged to send troops have not made a timetable for the deployment yet.

Source: Xinhua