Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in Kampala on Tuesday 11/16/2021, the militant group’s Amaq News Agency said on an affiliated Telegram account.
The suicide bombings killed three people in the heart of Kampala on Tuesday morning, sending lawmakers and others rushing for cover as cars burst into flames.
The two explosions occurred at an interval of three (3) minutes from each other in the morning at a distance of about 1.1 kilometres from each crime scene.
The street security cameras at both crime scenes show that the attacks were carried out by individuals carrying explosives. A possible attack on a third target was foiled by police, who pursued and disarmed a suspected suicide bomber, police spokesperson Fred Enanga said.
One blast was near a police station and the other on a street near the parliamentary building, according to police and witnesses. The explosion near parliament appeared to hit closer to a building housing an insurance company and the subsequent fire engulfed cars parked outside.
At least thirty-three (33) people were being treated at the city’s main public referral hospital (Mulago) of which (5) Five were critically injured and the rest sustained manageable injuries, Enanga said.
People rushed to leave the city in the aftermath of the attacks, many on passenger motorcycles, as police cordoned off wide areas near the blast scenes, footage posted on social media showed.
Ugandan officials have been urging vigilance in the wake of a string of bomb explosions in recent weeks.
One person was killed and at least seven others wounded in an explosion at Digida eating place, a restaurant in Komamboga a suburb of Kampala on 23 October.
Another explosion two days later on a passenger bus killed only the suicide bomber, according to police.
Even before those attacks, the UK government had updated its Uganda travel advisory to say extremists were “very likely to try to carry out attacks” in the east African country.
The Allied Democratic Forces, an affiliate of the Islamic State in central Africa, claimed responsibility for the attack on the restaurant.
Enanga said Tuesday’s attacks bore “the hallmarks” of the work of this group, although there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
At least 150 planned attacks had recently been defused, he said, describing a “domestic terror group” eager to carry out more attacks.
The Allied Democratic Forces has long been opposed to the sitting Government of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who was the first African leader to deploy troops in Somalia against the extremist group al-Shabaab.
Terrorist groups attacked Uganda in 2010 in bombings that killed at least 70 people who had assembled in public places in Kampala to watch a football World Cup game.
Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, a pan-African, is seen as a regional security master, a bulwark against islamist extremists in East Africa and the Horn of Africa.
The Uganda Peoples’ Defence Deforces (UPDF) have over the years contributed to peace and security in Liberia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Central Africa Republic and Somalia.