Former Army Chief of Staff in the Idi Amin regime Retired Major General Yusuf Gowan is dead. Gowan passed on Friday February 2, at Arua Regional Referral Hospital at the age of 85....CONTINUE READING
Sheikh Abdumutalib Kiiza, who is Gowan’s close relative says that the former Army Chief of Staff succumbed to heart failure.
“Mzee Gowan had been a bit sick. He has been down since early last year. Lately he suffered bouts of malaria. He has been in and out of hospital till he developed heart failure of late” Kizza said.
On Thursday February 1, he was admitted at Arua Regional Referral Hospital, but his health deteriorated.
Richard Andama Ferua, the former LC5 chairman of the then greater Arua District described the late Gowan as a disciplined former army officer who played a pivotal role in bringing peace in West Nile region.
“He was a disciplined, visionary and organised former army officer, he is one of the people to secure our peace here in West Nile region” says, the former LC5 chairman greater Arua.
He added that whenever they called the former soldiers for meetings, they would ask the former Army Chief of Staff to mobilise the Combatants and he would willingly accept.
“We shall surely miss him, It is a great loss is because he was one of coordinators of the ex-combatants and always engages the groups to appreciate peace and stability in West Nile ” Ferua added.
Retired Major General Gowan is also said to have been a unifying factor when conflict erupted in the army between the Kakwa and Aringa soldiers.
“Especially in the sectors of Former Uganda National Army-FUNA and Uganda National Rescue Front-UNRF 1, he was one of the people who worked tirelessly to bring these splinter groups together” Ferua says.
Major General Gowan, served the Idi Amin regime from 1972 to 1979 when Idi Amin was ousted.
He reportedly fled to exile in Bunia, DR Congo, in 1979 but shortly returned to Uganda to live a civilian life till his death.
Gowan, who hails from Mijale clan, in Lodonga sub county, Yumbe District has been residing at his residence in Abia Cell, Pangisa Ward, Arua Central Division, Arua city.
He will be buried on Saturday, at the Muslim Cemetery in Arua city.
