“Any talk of destroying or defeating Israel will bring us into the war” against Iran on “the side of Israel,” declared Uganda’s military chief, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, in a X post last week on March 25.
Kainerugaba is the son and heir apparent of Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni. Ruling Uganda since 1986, 81-year-old Museveni was handed a seventh term by the Electoral Commission in January after a disputed election.
The UN said that the electoral environment was marred by “widespread repression and intimidation against the political opposition, human rights defenders, [and] journalists.”
Following the election, held amid an internet shutdown, the main opposition leader, Bobi Wine, was forced into exile amid a manhunt for him by the military, whose chief, Kainerugaba, bragged of killing 30 of Wine’s party members, swearing to “get them all.”
Read more: Ugandan military continues post-election manhunt for main opposition leader Bobi Wine
Israel propped up Museveni’s repressive regime
Israeli technology, including the military-grade spyware Pegasus, has enabled the domestic crackdown by Museveni’s regime, allowing it to target Wine and track “dissidents, lawyers, journalists and other members of civil society”, reported Unwanted Witness.
Surveillance equipment supplied by the Israeli company NICE Systems has been used by the Ugandan to hunt down LGBTQ activists.
The “Special Forces Command (SFC)… [which] serves as a private and independent security force of President Yoweri Museveni” is in possession of Israeli “Tavor rifles, Galil ACE and Uzi machine guns,” reported the Database of Israeli Military and Security Export. In 2022, the two governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on defense cooperation.
Recalling Israel’s decades-long support for Museveni’s regime, “Why wouldn’t we defend her now,” asked Kainerugaba.
An absurd Ugandan claim, mocked even in Israel
In a subsequently deleted post on March 26, Kainerugaba said that the Ugandan military has offered help to the US and Israel in their war on Iran, adding, “We could have captured Tehran in 72 hours”.
Ugandan military strength is ranked 107th of the 145 countries surveyed in the 2026 annual review by Global Firepower. Iran’s armed forces, on the other hand, is ranked 16th. In contrast to the 1,180,000 Iranian military personnel, 610,000 of whom are active, the Ugandan military has only 43,800 active personnel.
Of the 51 aircraft of the Ugandan air force, only six are fighters, while Iran has 188 fighter aircraft. In contrast to the Iranian navy’s seven frigates, 25 submarines, and 21 patrol vessels, the landlocked East African nation has no navy.
Under the circumstances, the claim by the Ugandan military chief of being able to take the capital of a country whose military dwarfs his own in 72 hours “drew skepticism and raised questions about the seriousness of the proposal,” reported Israeli news channel i24.
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Filthy gusanos