Commander in Chief of the armed forces, President Yoweri Museveni, has appointed Brigadier General Asaph Nyakikuru Mweteise as the new deputy commander of the Special Forces Command (SFC), replacing Brigadier General Charity Bainababo.
Bainababo, who is also the UPDF representative in parliament, has been sent to the National Defence College (NDC).
Brigadier Nyakikuru was promoted from Colonel to Brigadier just two months ago. He has been leading the Special Forces Commando Force and has led operations in Somalia and South Sudan.
In Somalia, he played a key role in operations that saw the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) dislodge entrenched Al Shabaab militants from Mogadishu.
In 2013, Nyakikuru commanded commando crack units that thwarted Riek Machar’s attempt to seize power from President Salva Kiir in South Sudan.
He has also been involved in the battle against the Allied Democratic Forces in western Uganda and the fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda. Additionally, Brigadier Nyakikuru commanded military operations in Kampala during the opposition protests in 2021.
In 2021, President Museveni upgraded the first Commando Battalion, under Brigadier Nyakikuru’s command, into a Brigade.
Asaph Nyakikuru has also been overseeing Camp Rufu in the Kiruhura district, a military facility that specializes in sniper commandos.
This camp serves as the base for the One Command Battalion and the Special Forces training center.
