Patrick Jaramogi and Norman Katungi
14 November 2009
Kampala — CLOSE to 1,000 new Somalis, who arrived in the country after the terror threats by Al Shabaab Islamists, have been registered in Kisenyi, a Kampala suburb.
Roble Abdulayi, the-vice chairperson of the Association of Somali Community in Uganda, said the countrywide exercise had seen over 20,000 Somalis registered.
Sunday Vision established that all Somali refugees registering with Inter-aid (a refuge agency) in Uganda are required to get clearance from the Somali community in Uganda before they are considered.
Hussein Hassan, the community chairperson, said they will continue registering all new Somalis entering the country as directed by security agencies. "We can only stop when they tell us to do so, or when we feel the threats are reduced," he added.
President Yoweri Museveni recently warned the Islamist rebels that they would pay a heavy price if they attacked Kampala.
"Those groups, I would advise them to concentrate on solving their own problems. If they decide to attack us, they will pay heavily, because we know how to deal with those who attack us," he told journalists at the end of the African Union summit (AU) in Kampala last month.
He warned that Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia would pursue and attack the rebels if they acted on their threat.
The militants issued the threats after they claimed that rocket attacks by the AU peacekeepers killed at least 30 people in Mogadishu.
"We shall make their people cry. We'll attack Bujumbura and Kampala.
We will move our fighting to those two cities and we shall destroy them," Sheikh Ali Mohamed Hussein, a senior Al Shabaab commander, told reporters in Mogadishu.
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