President Museveni has promoted posthumously, Maj Patrick Opio Awany, a UPDF commander who was killed by a roadside blast in Somalia.
Awany was among the soldiers at the rank of major who were promoted to lieutenant colonel on Wednesday.
The brother to NRM Secretary General was killed on Sunday afternoon when his convoy was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region.
Maj Awany was the convoy commander and his vehicle was specifically targeted by a command wire IED.
According to a statement by the African Union Transition Mission, also dead was a Somalia National Army soldier while a couple others were injured.
Photos from Somalia showed that the vehicle in which Maj Awany was moving was hit and deformed beyond recognition.
A command wire IED is deadly in that it gives the trigger man positive control over or full command when to detonate the device.
These are usually used by terrorists who use the terrain to camouflage the wire by laying it in ditches or running it through brush and rubble, alternatively, they will partially bury the wire making it difficult to see and detect.
This was the case in Somalia when a logistics convoy fell prey and the commander didn’t survive.
