UGANDA-RWANDA:Col. Mande Missing?

Samson Mande is reportedly missing

By Gold Ronald from Chimpreport

A rumour has started circulating in the corridors of power that exiled UPDF fugitive officer and suspected rebel leader Col. Samson Mande has gone missing in Stockholm, Sweden.

According to available information, Mande was last seen in public in June at a function in South Africa.

The whereabouts of the Colonel remain unknown till now.

Chimpreports has tried to contact him via email but we are yet to get a response.

In fact under normal circumstances, Mande responds to our communication with lightening speed.

It’s said Mande was in close contact with government and had wanted to return to Kampala on condition that President Yoweri Museveni doled out Shs5bn to enable him settle a debt.

This website could not independently verify this claim.

But what is known is that Mande had already expressed his desire to return to Uganda.

It’s also rumoured that Mande was captured from a country neighbouring Uganda a few months ago and could soon be handed over to Uganda.

Towards the end of June, Samson Mande was visibly active on social networks especially Facebook where he was promoting an event dubbed Uganda @ 50 Nordics under the theme “Be Proud To Be A Ugandan.”

The last photograph he posted on his Facebook showed the former NRA combatant dressed in full military attire with a caption “Once a soldier, you soldier on.”

The development will raise eyebrows on whereabouts of the exiled Colonel.

Accused of starting the rebel People’s Redemption Army (PRA) in the early 2000s, Mande fled UPDF to Rwanda where he declared a war on Uganda.

Several PRA combatants were subsequently arrested in the jungles of Ituri, Congo, and jailed following military operations by then military intelligence boss Noble Mayombo.

Following the smashing of PRA and oiling of relations between Rwanda and Uganda, Mande left to Sweden where he was granted refugee status.

A few months ago, he gave this website an exclusive interview in which he bashed the Kampala government, accusing it of entrenching corruption, tribalism among other things.

However, a few weeks later, his tone changed from radical to moderate, as word went around that he was in talks with Kampala to return home.

When we reported that he called for Museveni’s overthrow in a debate moderated by Ugandans in South Africa, Mande wrote to our editor, calling for the article’s re-editing.

“I don’t want to be seen as a person with a personal grudge against Museveni but I want to address the bad situation and the wrongs happening in his administration,” clarified a softened Mande.

He even asked us to delete the word dictator as a description of Museveni, arguing “That does not in any way mean that I don’t call the regime a dictatorship, and its true President Museveni has all state facilities at his disposal- military, army, intelligence and money which is equal to his strength.”

In 2010, his alleged rebel accomplice Col. Edison Muzoora, who had secretly entered Uganda to lead an internal rebellion, was found dead in Bushenyi.

Several FDC leaders were arrested in connection with his “murder” and remanded at Luzira prison.

Chimpreports is treating Mande’s alleged disappearance as a developing rumour story and will keep you updated as events unfold.