UPDF commandos have arrived in Juba, the South Sudan capital to bolster security and save looming clashes.
Tensions are boiling between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar as a power-sharing deal unravels.
The Chief of Defence Forces in the UPDF, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba announced the deployment of Ugandan commandos in Juba.
“We, the UPDF, only recognize ONE President of South Sudan, H.E. Salva Kiir. He is our ‘Afande’ even in UPDF because he is the younger brother of Mzee! Any move against him is a declaration of war against Uganda!,” said Muhoozi.
“All those who commit that crime will learn what it means!”
The deployment comes over 13 years after a similar deployment by the UPDF in 2013 to save the Kiir government from being overthrown by Machar and his allies.
Tensions are boiling in South Sudan with clashes reported between South Sudan People’s Defence Forces which are the government troops and the White Army, a Nuer youth militia that has overrun government positions in Upper Nile State.
It has been said that Machar’s faction, the SPLA-IO faction is backing the White Army’s .
President Kiir last week ordered the arrest of SPLA-IO’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, and the Minister of Petroleum, Puot Kang.
