The Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, President Yoweri Museveni has promoted
Brigadier Richard Otto to the rank of Major General.
This was announced on Wednesday by the office of the UPDF spokesperson.
Otto has been serving as Uganda’s envoy in IGAD to facilitate the peace process in South Sudan.
He previously occupied the position of Uganda’s defence attache in Juba.
Otto could be headed for bigger assignments owing to his extensive experience in combat operations in Uganda, Sudan, Central African Republic and Somalia..
In 2020, Otto took over from Brig Gen Michael Kabango as the commander of the Ugandan Contingent in Somalia.
Between 2017-2020, Otto served as commanding officer of the third army division of the UPDF, based in Moroto.
Before that, he served as the commander of the UPDF contingent in the Central African Republic, as part of the African Union Regional Task Force (AU-RTF), the regional counter-offensive against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Otto was Contingent Commander of the UPDF units that defeated the LRA in the Central African Republic (CAR).
In 2017, Otto was promoted as UPDF began withdrawing from the Central Africa Republic where it had since 2012 been part of the African Union Regional Task Force.
To many, this was a recognition of a job well done in neutralising the LRA.
The army said then that LRA’s “capacity and means of making war against Uganda have been degraded” since senior Commanders such as; Dominic Ongwen, Okot Odyambo and other fighters had over the years been killed, captured or surrendered.
Those who surrendered were reintegrated into their societies of origin.
Otto, who hails from Kitgum, had been following the LRA for years as an intelligence officer.
In 2015, Brigadier Otto graduated from the National Defence College of India.