LEPTOSPIROSIS - SOMALIA (02): SUSPECTED

Date: Thu 30 Jul 2009
Source: Daily Monitor (Uganda) [edited]
<http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/UPDF_soldiers_poisoned_in_Somalia_88893.shtml>


By press time, 8 Ugandan soldiers on the Somali peacekeeping mission
were still in intensive care at a Nairobi hospital battling a strange
ailment suspected to be a result of poisoning. The soldiers are
feared to have been poisoned through water sources by the Islamist
fundamentalists, Al Shabaab, who are opposed to the interim
government in Somalia and the peacekeeping mission, sources told
Daily Monitor. But Maj Barigye Ba-Hoku, the African Union Peace
Keeping Mission spokesman, yesterday [29 Jul 2009] dismissed the
poisoning claims. "It's not true because this ailment is general and
it has affected the Somalis outside the camps. It's not only the
peacekeepers," he said.

"[Kenyan and Amisom (African Union Mission in Somalia)] doctors are
studying the cause of the illness and they will soon come up with the
report," Maj Ba-Hoku told Daily Monitor by telephone from Mogadishu.
The infected Ugandan peacekeepers are part of the over 50 who have
contracted the ailment that has in the last 3 weeks hit the Burundian
and Ugandan camps in Mogadishu. Al Shabaab early this month [July
2009] claimed they had poisoned Burundian peacekeepers.

Sources who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of
the subject said 4 of the Ugandan soldiers were evacuated from the
Somali capital, Mogadishu, and flown to Nairobi on Tuesday [28 Jul
2009] for treatment at Nairobi International Hospital. The Ugandan
and Burundian camps are about 2 kilometres [1.2 mi] apart, each with
its water tanks. Last week [week of 20 Jul 2009], the Deputy Amisom
Commander, Gen Juvinele Niyoyunguriza, told a group of Ugandan
journalists in Mogadishu that Burundian forces had been infected with
a strange disease.

Gen Niyonyunguriza said 50 soldiers had been admitted and 4 died at
Nairobi International hospital. Mr Gaffel Nkolokosa of the African
Union Mission for Somalia [Amisom] in Nairobi yesterday [29 Jul 2009]
said 12 of the 50 were evacuated from Mogadishu 3 weeks ago and
brought to Kenya for treatment after exhibiting symptoms similar to
those of their colleagues who had been admitted. He, however, said
they had recovered and returned to Burundi.

According to sources, the Ugandan soldiers had developed fever and
skin rash, before developing body organ failure. Amisom Medical
Officer James Kiyengo said on Friday [24 Jul 2009] that the strange
ailment is a bacterial infection caused by rat urine. He identified
the infection as leptospirosis. "It is spread by a rat. A rat could
have urinated in the water tank. We need to keep hygiene and keep
rats off," he said last week [week of 20 Jul 2009]. He said the
ailment causes fever and skin rash, but added that its spread can
stopped through isolation of cases and giving them doxycycline injections.

Col Kiyengo said they had received drugs from the Islamic Relief
Association in the United States and Korean International Cooperation
Agency for treatment of the force and the general Somali community.
Amisom, which comprises 4300 Ugandan and Burundian soldiers, has come
under intense attack from Al Shabaab, who consider the peacekeepers
as an occupying force. 12 Ugandan peacekeepers have been killed since 2007.

Al Shabaab, a youthful group that has been terrorising Somalis since
2006, has now turned to using both psychological and combat war to
scare Somalis from supporting Amisom and the Transitional Federal
Government, which has been in place for barely 7 months.

[Byline: Risdel Kasasira, Andrew Bagala]