from HASSAN ONYANGO in Kampala, Uganda
Uganda Bureau
KAMPALA, (CAJ News) – AUTHORITIES are maintaining an elevated security stance after the latest terror attack in Uganda.
Two attacks have been reported this month alone, including the one that left two tourists and their local aide dead in the western Kasese district.
Suspected members of the Islamist Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) are blamed for the attack that saw the assailants ambush a tourist vehicle in Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Fred Enanga, the Uganda Police Force spokesperson, described the attack as “cowardly.”
“Our joint forces responded immediately upon receiving the information and are aggressively pursuing the suspected ADF rebels,” he said.
Last Friday, an attack by militants against a commercial vehicle left several people dead in the Katojo area, also in the west.
This past weekend, President Yoweri Museveni said the country’s air force had carried out “devastating” attacks against ADF in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
He said police had thwarted terrorists from planting bombs in some churches in the central Butambala in Uganda.
Although initially a Ugandan-based group, the ADF operates mainly in the DRC’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces.
The terror group has been implicated in dozens of such attacks, including bombings.
The ADF was also blamed for the murder of students and educators at a government school towards the border with DRC in June this year as well as suicide bombings in the capital, Kampala, in late 2021.
Uganda launched a joint security operation with DRC at border areas against ADF strongholds.
Authorities have announced hundreds of militants have been killed since 2021.
Meanwhile, further attacks remain possible nationwide, notably in main urban centres and regions bordering the DRC.
– CAJ News