Army Uganda will create rapid response brigade for civil and military emergency operations 0308121

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Defense News - Uganda
 
 
Friday, August 3, 2012, 09:17 AM
 
Army of Uganda will create a rapid response brigade for civil and military emergency operations.
The Ugandan army is setting up a rapid response brigade for civil and military emergency operations during disasters in the East African country, local media reported here on Tuesday, July 31, 2012.
     
The Ugandan military is setting up a rapid response brigade for civil and military emergency operations during disasters in the East African country, local media reported here on Tuesday, Juky 31, 2012.
Uganda Peoples Defence Force soldiers with the Presidential Guard Brigade prepare to patrol outside the gates of a mock camp at the Kasenyi Training Facility in Kasenyi, Uganda.
(Credit Photo U.S. Army image)
     

Maj. Gen. Julius Oketta, Director of the National Emergency Coordination Operation Center at the Office of the Prime Minister was quoted by the state owned New Vision daily as saying that the brigade will consist of 4,000 personnel drawn from various military units.

"The rapid response force will comprise of medical teams, engineers, specialized search, rescue and evacuation teams plus logistics teams that will be always ready to handle disasters in any part of the country," he said.

The brigade formation follows various deadly landslides in mountainous areas in eastern Uganda, where rescue efforts were hampered by lack of well prepared and equipped personnel to handle such situations.

"On the two occasions in 2010 and this year when landslides occurred in Bududa district, the army working with police and community members had to use ineffective tools like hand hoes and spades to excavate bodies buried by mounds of soil," said Oketta.

The landslides in June struck the eastern Ugandan district of Bududa, killing at least 18 people, resurrecting memories of the March 2010 and August 2011 landslides in the same district that left over 250 people dead and hundreds displaced.