Ugandan police announced Thursday (November 18th) that they had shot dead five suspects and arrested 21 people as part of the investigation into a recent double suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group that killed four people in Kampala. Perpetrated by three suicide bombers, the two attacks took place two minutes apart on Tuesday morning, first at a checkpoint near the police headquarters, then near the Parliament, in the business district of the capital city.
Police attributed these two attacks to a “Local group linked to ADF”, the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebellion born in Uganda and active for twenty-five years in the eastern part of the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They have been claimed by ISIS, which designates the ADF as its “Province of central Africa” (Iscap in English). In March, the United States officially declared the ADF affiliated with ISIS.
On Thursday, during a shootout in western Uganda, counterterrorism agents killed “Four suspects in Ntoroko, from where they returned to the DRC”police spokesman Fred Enanga told reporters. A fifth man, Sheikh Abas Muhamed Kirevu, was killed near the capital trying to escape arrest, he added, identifying him as a local Muslim leader “Responsible for the awakening of terrorist cells in Kampala”. Police also arrested 21 suspects, “Operational agents, coordinators and fundraisers of terrorist activities”, continued Mr. Enanga.
“The ADF refocus on Uganda”
Tuesday’s double attack came three weeks after two other attacks: a bomb attack on a restaurant in the capital on October 23, claimed by Iscap; and an unclaimed suicide bombing on a bus near Kampala two days later.
The police said at the end of October that they had arrested ” a certain number “ suspected members of the ADF after these attacks, suspecting the group of “Prepare a serious attack against important infrastructures”. The ADF are considered by experts to be the deadliest of the 120 or so armed groups that roam eastern DRC, many of them the product of two regional wars fought a quarter of a century ago.
This rebel group is accused of having killed thousands of civilians in eastern DRC. According to Kristof Titeca, an academic specializing in the group, “It is increasingly clear that the ADF is refocusing on Uganda”.
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