President Yoweri Museveni is in London, United Kingdom for a two day working visit during which he will attend and address the Somalia Conference which has commenced this morning at the Lancaster House on Thursday May 11, 2017.
The President, who is accompanied by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Janet Kataaha Museveni was received by Lord Dolar Popat, Member of the UK House of Lords, H.E Peter West the UK High Commissioner to Uganda, Uganda’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Prof. Joyce Kakuramatsi Kikafunda and the Minister of Local Government Adolf Mwesige, upon arrival last evening.
The President held a bilateral meeting with the United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May focusing on South Sudan and Somalia before both leaders attended the opening ceremony of the London Somalia Conference at Lancaster House.
He is expected to hold various bilateral meetings including with the UN Secretary General H.E Antonio Guterres and the UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Hon. Boris Johnson.
Uganda was the first country to deploy troops under AMISOM into Somalia in March 2007. So far, Uganda has provided all four AMISOM Force Commanders with the recent outgoing being Lt. Gen. Andrew Gutti who was replaced by Lt. Gen. Silas Ntigurirwa from Burundi.
The Ugandan contingent remains the largest contingent in AMISOM with 6,223 troops based in Sector 1 which comprises of Banadir (Mogadishu), Middle and Lower Shabelle regions.
Until now, Uganda has deployed 12 battle groups into the Mission area. The recently deployed Battle Group 12 joined their Burundian counterparts in Baidoa.
Other Speakers will include UK Prime Minister Theresa May, UN chief Antonio Guterres and Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo.
The meeting is expected to agree a plan to train more Somali forces to replace the African Union troops currently fighting the militant Islamist group Al-Shabab.
The UK government has also said it is committed to preventing famine and will call for increased international aid.
The UK Foreign Office is live-streaming the event, which is now under way:
Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo in his speech this morning said there have been many conferences about Somalia, but today’s is important, because Somalia will never turn back to its past.
