Uganda Army killings

How widespread is the problem?

There is no research yet into whether the killings are linked to PTSD.

But an investigation by The Independent about recent cases of shootings of civilians and suicides involving UPDF soldiers shows that lower ranked officers—many of them at the rank of private and sergeant—are the main offenders.

George Angulu, the UPDF soldier who shot five civilians dead and injured seven others at Karenga trading centre in the northeastern district of Kaabong in May last year was at the rank of “private.”

On July 6, this year, Joseph Arioni, a “private” shot and killed two of his colleagues at the Masaka Armoured Brigade Barracks for unclear reasons.

The following day, a UPDF soldier only identified as Sgt Kaboyo jumped off a ferry and drowned in Lake Victoria. A note recovered on the MV Kalangala next to his mobile phone read: “My name is Kaboyo, I have been miserable for a long time but it is high time I rest.”

Nyende says the reason lower rank officers in the UPDF are the majority of the offenders is because they tend to experience the most pressure at work, often times working during odd hours of the day.  They are also the soldiers who get posted to hard-to-reach areas around the country.

Meanwhile, Basangwa says in the military, resilience to trauma increases with hierarchy.

“That is why when you are looking at factors that can reduce PTSD, social support is key,” he says.

First, in the military, senior people are supposed to show a good example to the junior cadres in the forces and a soldier at the rank of “Major” or above is more likely to have greater social support.

“They have wider support from family and friends that they can talk to and get counseled. That increases resilience.”

Basangwa adds that the level of income also matters considering that if someone is better off in terms of income; he or she has more chances of offloading stress.

“A lower-ranking soldier has less interaction, less support,” he said.

Basangwa also told The Independent that UPDF management is concerned about the re-occurrence of these shootings and as a result, Butabika Hospital has for the last four years been involved in planning interventions to deal with what is happening. However, work, on PTSD stalled when the lead UPDF doctor passed on.

He says there is a new intervention from the UK that Butabika Hospital and UPDF has been working on (mental health first aid) to help soldiers not only coming from the war front but also those at home to manage symptoms of the condition. In the next three years, 2000 mental health personnel will be trained under this programme.

A curriculum on mental health aid is being developed to help mental health workers in UPDF learn how to identify early and also do preventive work among soldiers.

“When soldiers get back from war situations, they are taken through debriefing sessions to help them deal with what they went through and deal with those difficulties.

“That reduces on the symptoms to come and even when they show up, the soldiers are able to manage themselves because they have known about them, they know how to deal with them and they cope better.”

Introducing psychological tests

But Nyende says much of the trouble could be avoided if recruiters of new personnel into the national army subjected the recruits to personality tests.

He says there are certain personalities that should not be given arms. There are also people who have anti-social personality disorders—disorders which affect the way one reacts in a given situation.

Nyende says: “The issue of selecting people for the military and police is critical and needs to be examined. It needs to be professionalized and move it to a specific level such that it becomes easy to weed out people who do not have the capacity to manage anger or stress. Personalities that are prone to anxiety and stress should not be welcome in the military”.

But Basangwa does not agree entirely with Nyende’s proposal.

“If one is looking out for risk for PTSD, you won’t get it because it normally comes as a disease that results from the exposure to overwhelming experience of war or stress,” he says.

He says any tests should cover overall mental health challenges.

“It may not be good for someone to be armed when they already have mental challenges,” he said, “You would do a lot of prevention if you can at least screen for certain disorders that they shouldn’t have when they are in the armed forces. It can be done because other countries are already doing it.”

But Bantariza says getting psychologists from Makerere University or Butabika Hospital will not help “because there is more to psychology”.

In his view: “Psychology comes after ideology because the latter deals with psychology. It deals with what the person thinks and fights for and that is the reason UPDF is different from other armies.”

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editor@independent.co.ug