 | | Osega died in a 2-hour clash | By Herbert Ssempogo and Steven Candia
Only a month ago, he was entrusted to bringing home the body of a colleague, slain in Sudan�s volatile Darfur region. Little did he know that a few days after his return, he would suffer the same fate.
Julius Osego, a Detective Superintendent of Police, was on Tuesday night shot dead by unknown assailants while serving on the UN-AU peacekeeping mission, UNAMID.
He died alongside six other police officers from Rwanda and Ghana, according to the UN. A total of 22 peacekeepers got wounded, seven seriously.
Osega and his colleagues were on routine patrol when they came under fire from unidentified assailants, 15 kilometers from El Salam, according to the Uganda Police spokesperson, Judith Nabakooba.
The UN said the attack on a joint military and police UNAMID patrol in North Darfur lasted two hours and the assailants used heavy weapons.
Nabakooba described the incident as a big blow to the Police force.
�We have lost an experienced, competent and hardworking person, who served all people diligently,� she lamented.
Osega, 41, a lawyer, was the deputy acting commissioner in the legal department before he left for Darfur in January.
His career in the Police force started in 1991, when he underwent training at the Police training school in Masindi.
He was promoted to the rank of assistant Inspector of Police in 1998 and became a superintendent in 2005. Osega held a Masters degree in human rights from Pretoria University in South Africa.
He acquired a Bachelor of Law degree from Makerere University in 1998.
Earlier, he got a diploma in legal practice at the Law Development Centre in Kampala.
Osega also participated in a training programme for policemen in Somalia.
He is the second Ugandan to die in Darfur. On May 28, inspector John Kennedy Oketcho, 39, was shot dead in his car on his return from the airport in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.
Despite the two incidents, Nabakooba vowed that their resolve to serve in peacekeeping missions would not be affected.
Ugandan Police officers have been serving in peacekeeping operations in Liberia, Sudan and East Timor. |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment