By Hamza Kyeyune
KAMPALA, Uganda (AA): Six people died in twin explosions that rocked Uganda’s capital Kampala Tuesday morning, including three of the presumed suicide bombers, police officials said. 36 people were injured.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks on its Amaq News Agency website.
In a statement on Tuesday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said: “Apart from hunting the terrorists, the country’s strategy of vigilance (alertness), is helping to minimize damage.” Therefore, the public should maintain vigilance of checking people at entry points to bus parks, hotels, churches, mosques, markets.”
81 suspects have been arrested, Museveni added.
The African Union on Tuesday condemned explosions that rocked Uganda’s capital Kampala, killing at least six people.
“The African Union stands in total solidarity with the people & Government of Uganda following terrorist attacks in Kampala that I condemn in the strongest terms,” the bloc’s chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said on Twitter.
“Our sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wishes for a full recovery to the injured,” he added.
Dozens were also injured in the blasts, according to police and a local hospital.
After the explosions near the nation’s parliament and the Central Police Station, police counter-terrorism response teams shot and injured a would-be fourth bomber, said police spokesman Fred Enanga.
As efforts to find more explosives in the city continue, two more bombs have been recovered by the bomb squad, in Nansana-Katooke, a Kampala suburb, he added.
“We are now pursuing other members of the terror group,” he told journalists.
Police said terrorists of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – a group active in both Uganda and neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo – are responsible for the attack. The US has linked the ADF with terrorist group Daesh/ISIS.
“The bomb threats are still active, ADF-linked radicalized groups still have a desire to carry out lethal attacks on soft targets, with suicide attackers and improvised explosive devices,” said a police spokesperson.
The explosion near the police station shattered windows, while the one near the entrance to parliament saw cars parked nearby burst into flames, said Police Assistant Inspector General Edward Ochom.
Some 27 people – all but seven of them men – went to Mulago National Referral Hospital with injuries, said its Deputy Executive Director Rosemary Byanyima. Most are police officers.
Police put the provisional number of injuries at 33.
Anita Among, the parliament deputy speaker, suspended the body and asked lawmakers to remain at home.
The attacks come follow a suicide bomb attack last month on a bus that killed one person.
Additional report by The Muslim News
[Photo: Injured people are taken to the Mulago Hospital by health care officials to receive treatment after two blasts occurred with one just meters away from the main gate to the country’s parliament and the other near the city’s central police station, in Kampala, Uganda on November 16, 2021. Photographer: Nicholas Kajoba/AA]
