Two explosions caused by suicide bombers in the streets rocked Uganda’s capital, Kampala, on Tuesday. Another attacker has been arrested and an explosive vest recovered, police said. The attackers were on motorbikes. One blast was near a police station and the other on a street near the parliamentary building. Three people were killed in the blasts. Body parts were seen scattered in the street. Videos shared on social media showed cars engulfed in flames, large plumes of smoke and debris scattered across the street. At least 33 people were being treated at the city’s main public referral hospital, five of them in serious condition. The number of dead is likely to rise. Two policemen were among the dead. More bombs have been found in other parts of the city, officials said. There have been a number of bomb explosions in recent weeks. One person was killed and at least seven others wounded in an explosion at a restaurant in a suburb of Kampala on October 23.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said the attacks were carried out by “manipulated and confused” youths who were being hunted down by the security forces in the months since a failed assassination bid on a top government official.The Allied Democratic Forces, an extremist group established in the early 1990s that is affiliated to the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blasts. The Allied Democratic Forces has long been opposed to the long rule of Museveni, a U.S. security ally who was the first African leader to deploy peacekeepers in Somalia to protect the federal government from the extremist group al-Shabab. Reports of an alliance between the Allied Democratic Forces and the IS group first emerged in 2019.
