Ugandans who worked in Iraq and Afghanistan under private security contracts have asked the government to help them secure compensation, saying their agreements were not fully honoured.
Operating under the umbrella body War Zone Returnees of Iraq and Afghanistan, the group says it has written to several authorities in Uganda and the United States but has not received a satisfactory response.
The group’s leader, Justus Tumwiine, said members were recruited through security agencies linked to contracts supporting the United States government, but the terms changed after deployment.
“We signed contracts with agreed pay to work in Iraq and Afghanistan on behalf of the US government, but when we got there, things changed,” Tumwiine said.
The returnees are now calling on the government, which they say facilitated their recruitment, to support their efforts to access justice and recover their money.
Their renewed push comes as they seek to engage lawyers from the United States to assess the claims and explore possible legal action.
Nesto Mande, one of the veterans who served in Afghanistan, said he remained hopeful that both the Ugandan and US governments would listen to their concerns.
“We believe we will get a fair hearing,” he said.
Documents seen by the group indicate that petitions have been submitted to several government institutions, including the ministries of gender, labour and social development, and foreign affairs, as well as agencies linked to the US defence establishment.
The returnees say more than 200,000 Ugandans took up work in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2005, when the first group left the country. Some have since died, while others are living with trauma and mental health challenges.
They argue that the scale of the problem and the conditions they endured justify urgent intervention and compensation.
