Assault group Marines have been sharing amphibious skills with forces in Uganda to help them conduct searches of vessels and work on beaches.
Plymouth-based 1 Assault Group Marines (1AGRM) has been working in Uganda training personnel in amphibious skills as a Short-Term Training Team. The training comes on behalf of the tri-service British Peace Support Team in Africa which provides support on the request of different nations.
Soldiers from the Ugandan People’s Defence Force were trained in attacking beaches and boarding and searching boats. Royal Marines used Lake Victoria to demonstrate boarding and handling ships and explain how to approach them along the shoreline.
RMR Merseyside Reservist Sam Dwyer said: “We have been training the 10th Marine Battalion of the Uganda’s People Defence Force for mission-specific pre-deployment training before they go to Somalia.”
“The training has been split between ground combat and working with their coxswains as their tasking in Mogadishu, Somalia, will see them patrol the fisheries and the sea.”
“We trained them in boat skills, assaulting beaches and board-and-search. The language barrier has been one of the biggest challenges as they mainly speak Swahili. Trying to convey our normal instructions, lectures and lessons in what is a second language to them can make it difficult.”
Green berets also showed them how to man checkpoints, carry out patrols, and what to do when confronted with trafficking situations. Royal Marines also organised a sports day for a local primary school as well as working with Ugandan Forces, which included a tug-of-war and a relay race.
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