The jihadist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility on Tuesday (November 16) for the double suicide bombing carried out in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, which left at least three dead and thirty wounded, and claimed that it was carried out by three suicide bombers. In a statement broadcast on its Telegram channels, ISIS claimed that the first attack targeted the police headquarters and that the second took place near the seat of Parliament, which was due to meet.
Two explosions, which the police described as“Suicide bombings”, indeed occurred Tuesday in the center of Kampala. Police spokesman Fred Enanga said three people died and thirty-three others were injured, five of them seriously. These attacks were attributed by Mr. Enanga to a “Local group linked to ADF [les Forces démocratiques alliées, une rébellion islamiste] “.
The ADF is a Muslim rebel group that emerged in Uganda and has been rooting for more than twenty-five years in the eastern part of the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where it is sowing terror. Since April 2019, some ADF attacks have been claimed by ISIS, which designates the group as its “Province of central Africa”. In March, the United States officially declared them affiliated with ISIS.
Twenty-one of the thirty-three injured are police officers
The explosions occurred in the business district, near the police headquarters and the entrance to Parliament. The detonation of the first attack, carried out by a man carrying a bomb in a backpack, destroyed windows. The second was carried out by two men “Disguised as motorcycle taxis” and set fire to vehicles parked nearby.
Counterterrorism forces arrested a fourth suicide bomber and “Recovered an unexploded home-made explosive device (…) his home “, said Mr. Enanga. Wounded during his arrest, “He died later”Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said in a statement released in the evening, which assured that “Terrorists (…) will perish ”. The Head of State called on the population to “Remain vigilant and control people at the entry points of bus parking lots, hotels, churches, mosques, markets …”
The Ugandan Red Cross said twenty-one of the 33 injured were police officers. “We have deployed a team” in the sector, also told Agence France-Presse (AFP) one of its spokespersons, Irene Nakasiita.
Kyle Spencer, executive director of an NGO, heard the explosions. He described to AFP the panic that gripped people in the neighborhood: “The road to Parliament is closed, there are people crying and the others are just trying to leave the area. Everyone is evacuating the office buildings and the buildings are locked, no one can enter. “
Already two attacks in October
Parliament canceled its scheduled session on Tuesday, and asked members to avoid the area. By midday, the surroundings of the building had been placed under close surveillance, with heavily armed soldiers patrolling and members of the forensic police inspecting the site. The United States Embassy in Kampala has asked Americans to stay away from the area and to obtain information from the media.
These attacks “Clearly show that groups linked to the ADF still have the will to carry out deadly attacks against easy targets with suicide bombers and homemade explosive devices”, said Mr. Enanga. Ugandan police arrested a number of suspected ADF members last month, saying they suspected an attack on “Major installations”.
Kampala had already been targeted in October by two attacks, also attributed by the police to the ADF. A bomb explosion in a restaurant in the capital on October 23 killed a young waitress and a suicide bombing on a bus two days later left one dead and many injured.
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.