COFFEE WITH THE AFRICA REPORT
SALIM SALEH BROTHER IN ARMS
Uganda’s veteran military commander [and presidential sibling] holds forth on the youth challenge to the Museveni regime, growing coffee and regional diplomacy By PATRICK SMITH A phone alarm sounds and, with military precision, Lieutenant General Salim Saleh logs onto the video conference call at the top of the hour. Sporting an open-necked shirt and cradling a large mug of coffee, Saleh is ready for combat – of the verbal kind, he assures me. More gentleman farmer than security hegemon today, Saleh is speaking from his house in Gulu, the city in northern Uganda that became the epicentre of the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency three decades ago. Now he is leading a national project there to boost coffee production. East African coffees are thriving. To mark the occasion, I brewed a pot with beans from the grassy slopes of the Rwenzori mountains, which straddle Uganda and the DRC. In demand in Europe and the US, these light, fragrant beans are shipped from both countries. Another reason to find a way to cooperate in the regional economy. Two points dominate Saleh’s biography. His older brother is Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, to whom he has been a long-time adviser on all
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matters military. The second is more contentious. Saleh is widely said to be one of Uganda’s richest businessmen, with interests in gold and private security companies, as well as extensive land holdings. Cue for the first rebuttal. All that, insists Saleh, is a gross exaggeration. “For starters, I’m not a greedy person. I don’t have money like all those other leaders who keep money abroad. I don’t have a foreign account. My account in Uganda is overdrawn.” A polite chuckle hangs in the air for a few moments, on both ends of the line. Saleh is not your regular businessman. Born Caleb Akandwanaho, he left school at 16 to join a Tanzania-based
‘I’m not a greedy person. [I’m not] like all those leaders who keep money abroad’
THEAFRICAREPORT / N° 116 / JULY-AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2021
rebel group fighting Idi Amin’s regime, led by his brother, Museveni. When the rebels sent him to Mozambique for military training, he adopted the nom de guerre Salim Saleh. When, in 1986, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) launched their final assault on Kampala, bringing Museveni to power, it was Saleh who commanded the operation. As commander of the National Resistance Army, Saleh led the fight against sundry insurgents in the north, some backed by Amin’s erstwhile allies, some by Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir. He again emerged as a key player in Uganda’s bid, with regional allies, to oust Mobutu Sese Seko in Congo – this time in a less flattering light. He was named in a UN experts’ report as one of an ‘elite network’ of military officers and businessmen involved in the gold trade in the DRC. Not so, says Saleh. “It looks as if I own companies there […] when I don’t have a single company there.” He adds that he has barely set foot in the country, despite his role as a point man for all matters Congo. In April, Kinshasa told the Inter national Court of Justice it was seeking $4.3bn in reparations against Uganda for illicit gold exports. A judgement on the long-running dispute is due in November. What are the chances that Kinshasa will win its claim? “Zero, in my opinion,” says Saleh. Also in April, Uganda offered to send its soldiers to help the DRC government with security on its eastern flank. Military cooperation might encourage a legal settlement or trigger new ructions. The rift between Rwanda and Uganda is yet to heal fully after their two armies clashed in Kisangani two decades ago. Rwanda followed the
