Ugandan troops begin 'suicide mission' in Somalia

Less than 24 hours before Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni began deploying the vanguard of a peace mission to Somalia, his police force was busy firing tear gas to disperse demonstrators in central Kampala.

The protesters accused him of presiding over a breakdown in the rule of law after security agents re-arrested six treason suspects released by the High Court and beat a lawyer unconscious, the latest sign of growing autocracy that has dismayed international donors.

But when the first Ugandan troops trotted down the cargo ramp of an aircraft at Mogadishu International Airport the next day, Mr Museveni took a clear step towards strengthening relations with his most important ally - the US.

"Public perception is against him; people increasingly see him as hardline and intolerant," said Angelo Izama, of the Daily Monitor newspaper. "But the opposition knows he's got a powerful ally in his camp."

Once feted as a soldier-scholar who overthrew a corrupt regime to introduce a measure of free market prosperity, Mr Museveni lost support at home and abroad when he broke a promise to step down after parliament changed the constitution to allow him to run again.

A year after the elections, he has reinvigorated his leading role in the US "war on terror" by dispatching the first contingent of a planned 1,600-strong Ugandan mission to Mogadishu - a city that has a history of sending well-meaning foreign troops home in body bags.

A volley of mortar rounds landed near the airport as the first 400 troops arrived on Tuesday, while nine civilians were killed and two Ugandan soldiers wounded the next day when rockets were fired at a Ugandan convoy driving through Mogadishu. But for Mr Museveni, the risk to his troops may be a price worth paying.