 | This article needs to be updated.(November 2010) |
Terrorism in Uganda primarily occurs in the north, where the Lord's Resistance Army, a militant Christian religious cult that seeks to overthrow the Ugandan government, has attacked villages and forcibly conscripted children into the organization since 1988. [1] The al-Shabbab jihadist group has also staged attacks in the country.
From 1997 the Allied Democratic Front, a terrorist organization based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, threw bombs into taxis and public buildings. More than 50 people were killed and more than 160 were injured. Suspects were held in safe houses. The Uganda Human Rights Commission and other non-governmental organizations criticized this process because suspects were allegedly held for more than the legal 48 hours before being charged with a crime and were tortured. [2] In 1998, the Uganda Salvation Front attacked Tororo Prison and abducted several inmates. [3]
On 11 July 2010, suicide bombings were carried out against crowds watching a screening of 2010 FIFA World Cup Final match during the World Cup at two locations in Kampala. The attacks left 74 dead and 70 injured. Islamist al-Shabbab claimed responsibility for the attacks as retaliation for Ugandan support for AMISOM. [4]
On 5 July 2014, several tribal gunmen armed with machetes and spears attacked in Kasese, Ntoroko and Bundibugyo districts killing civilians, military officers and policemen. It led to loss of 93 people and property worth millions of shillings. [5]
On 1 June 2021, General Katumba Wamala was travelling in a vehicle when four gunmen appeared and opened fire, wounding Wamala and killing his driver and his daughter. [6] [7] [8] [9] After a month of investigation, on July 1, 2021, authorities revealed that the attackers were Islamic extremists who were trained in a jihadist camp in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, and had links with the Allied Democratic Forces and the Islamic State. [10]
On 24 October 2021, a deadly explosion occurred at a restaurant in Komamboga, Kampala, killing one person and wounding three more. The Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack. [11] Two days later, an Allied Democratic Forces suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus in Kampala, wounding several people. [12] On 29 October, two children were killed during a bomb explosion at a village in Nakaseke. The device looked like an exotic “jackfruit” and was given to the children while they were playing. [13]
On 16 November 2021, twin suicide bombers exploded their improvised explosive devices (IEDs) near in the capital, Kampala. The three suicide bombers together with other three innocent victims died. Twenty-seven people were wounded and admitted at Mulago National Referral Hospital. The Islamic State later claimed the attacks through their Telegram channel.
On 16 June 2023, rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a jihadist group speculatively linked by analysts to the Islamic State, [14] attacked a school in Mpondwe, a town in western Uganda's Kasese District on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Forty-two people were killed, including 38 students. [15]
The Anti-Terrorism Act 2002 makes "terrorism," and supporting or promoting terrorism, crimes punishable by capital punishment. It defines terrorism as, [2]
"the use of violence or threat of violence with intent to promote or achieve religious, economic and cultural or social ends in an unlawful manner, and includes the use, or threat to use, violence to put the public in fear or alarm." [2]
Livingstone Ssewannyana, Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, says the act is "in conflict with international standards, particularly the freedom of expression and Association. An objective examination of the act from a human rights perspective shows that it potentially infringes on freedom of expression and assembly, including media freedom." The Minister for Internal Affairs can dissolve any organization the government designates as terrorist, and the government can then seize its assets if the cabinet agrees. In addition, the minister can designate individuals "authorized officers" who have the "right to intercept the communication of a person." [2]
When the National Assembly debated the act, Internal Affairs Minister Eriya Kategaya said the government needed "this power to move quickly and decisively against suspected terrorists before they cause more havoc." [2]
Colonel Leopold Kyanda, Head of the Ugandan government's Military Intelligence department, and General Aronda Nyakairima, Chief of Defence Forces, answered questions regarding Ugandan policy on terrorism in a press conference in February 2007. Colonel Kyanda acknowledged that "in the process of trying to arrest terrorists at times you find people who are innocent. As you all very well know, a terrorist does not have any boundary. So, operations against a terrorist are complicated. A terrorist does not wear uniform; a terrorist does not demarcate boundaries but is amongst everybody." General Nyakairima said the government does not have safe houses for holding terrorist suspects. [1]
Kyanda said that innocent people who are arrested accidentally are often those who are with terrorists at the time of their arrest. [1]
"Terrorism is more complicated than the ordinary crime where within the stipulated 48 hours you will not get [have got] what you want. So some of these individuals are held in transit, and we begin to get more information whether they are clean or not and then proceed with the cases. So that is what I can say about the innocent people we pick up [arrest] accidentally during terrorist operations." [1]
Defence Ministers Amama Mbabazi of Uganda, Kivutha Kibwana of Kenya and Philemon Sarungi of Tanzania met with other military officials in Kampala, Uganda from 21–23 November 2003 in a U.S.-sponsored counter-terrorism conference. [16] [17]
Ugandan Military Intelligence Chief Colonel Nobel Mayombo told reporters in Kampala that terrorism is "one of the items high on the agenda of the meeting and how East African resources could be put in place to create security. The meeting will assess the three countries' readiness to defense challenges and increase information-sharing including issue on training. As for Uganda... we also have targets that have to be protected" because some of the countries near Uganda are "incubators of terrorism." [16]
Representatives from the governments signed an agreement on tracking terrorist suspects in East Africa. [17]
Ugandan police arrested Peter Waldron, an evangelist, along with six other suspects on charges of "terrorism" on 20 February 2006. Police say they found four AK-47s and 180 bullets under Waldron's bed contrary to section 7(2j) of the Anti-terrorism Act of Uganda 2002. Three of the other suspects are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and three are from Uganda. Chief Magistrate Margaret Tebulya said Waldron had the arms "all without a valid license or reasonable excuse." The arrest came shortly before presidential elections, and the suspects had planned to found a Christian political party. [18] [19]
Ugandan police arrested Christopher John Howdy in Gulu on 20 November 2006, charging him with "terrorism" on 21 November. Police say Howdy had three unlicensed guns. Howdy was imprisoned in Kampala prison until the high court heard his case. [20]
Ugandan police chief Major General Kale Kayihura, Honorary Consul Noraihan Haji Adnan, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs James Mugume, and Malaysian police chief Tan Sri Musa Hassan met in Bukit Aman Police Headquarters, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 15 February 2007. They agreed to provide information on counter-terrorism, drug trafficking, riot control and marines. The Malaysian government will train the Uganda Police Force for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2007. [21]
Islamic terrorism refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.
The Allied Democratic Forces is an Islamist rebel group in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan government. It was originally based in western Uganda but has expanded into the neighbouring DRC. Most Ugandan ADF fighters are Muslims from the Baganda and Basoga ethnic groups.
Salafia Jihadia is a Salafi Jihadist militant group based in Morocco and Spain. The group was allied with al-Qaeda and Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM).
Terrorism in Indonesia refer to acts of terrorism that take place within Indonesia or attacks on Indonesian people or interests abroad. These acts of terrorism often target the government of Indonesia or foreigners in Indonesia, most notably Western visitors, especially those from the United States and Australia.
The 2007 Baghlan sugar factory bombing occurred on November 6, 2007, when a bomb exploded in the centre of Baghlan, Afghanistan, while a delegation of parliamentarians was visiting, killing at least 72 people including several lawmakers.
The 2008 Issers bombing occurred on August 19, 2008, when a suicide bomber drove and detonated a vehicle laden with explosives into a crowd of para-military recruits waiting to take exams outside a police academy in Issers, Boumerdès Province, Algeria killing 43 and injuring 38. The Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb is suspected as being responsible.
Edward Katumba Wamala, more commonly known as Katumba Wamala, is a Ugandan general who has served as Minister of Works and Transport in the Ugandan cabinet, since 14 December 2019.
On 11 July 2010, suicide bombings were carried out against crowds watching a screening of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final at two locations in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The attacks left 74 dead and 85 injured. Al-Shabaab, an Islamist militia based in Somalia that has ties to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the blasts as retaliation for Ugandan support for AMISOM. In March 2015, the trial of 13 Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian alleged perpetrators of the bombings began at the High Court of Uganda.
The Allied Democratic Forces insurgency is an ongoing conflict waged by the Allied Democratic Forces in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, against the governments of those two countries and the MONUSCO. The insurgency began in 1996, intensifying in 2013, resulting in hundreds of deaths. The ADF is known to currently control a number of hidden camps which are home to about 2,000 people; in these camps, the ADF operates as a proto-state with "an internal security service, a prison, health clinics, and an orphanage" as well as schools for boys and girls.
A suicide bombing took place on 26 June 2015 at a Shia mosque in Kuwait. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attack. Sabah al-Sabah, the Emir at the time, arrived at the location of the incident after a short period of time. Twenty-seven people were killed and 227 people were wounded.
The 2015 police raids in Turkey were a series of police raids conducted by the General Directorate of Security in 16 different Provinces of Turkey. The July 20th, 2015 Suruç bombing in Suruç killed 32 Kurds. Claimed by ISIS, it was perceived by Kurdish militants as a collaboration between ISIS and Turkey security services, leading to a series of revenge attacks on Turkish policemen and military positions in Adıyaman and Ceylanpınar. The Ceylanpınar incidents saw the assassination of 2 policemen by operatives of disputed affiliation, attributed to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and became the Casus belli for Turkey operations in both Turkey and Iraq.
Islamic terrorism in Europe has been carried out by the Islamic State (ISIL) or Al-Qaeda as well as Islamist lone wolves since the late 20th century. Europol, which releases the annual EU Terrorism Situation and Trend report (TE-SAT), used the term "Islamist terrorism" in the years 2006–2010, "religiously inspired terrorism" 2011–2014, and has used "jihadist terrorism" since 2015. Europol defines jihadism as "a violent ideology exploiting traditional Islamic concepts".
On 13–14 December 2017, Russian security authorities arrested seven members of an ISIL terrorist cell during a police operation in St. Petersburg. The suspects were alleged to have plotted suicide bombings in St. Petersburg on the weekend of 16–17 December 2017, with the Kazan Cathedral among the targets. Both the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) were involved in the operation.
Islamic State – Bengal Province (IS-BP) is an administrative division of the Islamic State, a Salafi jihadist militant group and former unrecognised Quasi-state. The group was announced by ISIL as its province in 2016. The first emir of Wilayat al-Bengal, Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, is believed to be Mohammad Saifullah Ozaki a Bangladeshi Japanese economist who went to Syria in 2015 and joined IS. A Hindu convert to Islam, he reportedly led the 2016 Dhaka attack. He was detained in Iraq in 2019 and Abu Muhammed al-Bengali was announced as the new emir of the province.
Jamil Mukulu is a Ugandan militant leader and suspected war criminal who was the principal founder and former leader of the Allied Democratic Forces, an armed Islamist rebel group in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mukulu was arrested in Tanzania in 2015 and is currently awaiting trial in Uganda for charges such as murder and crimes against humanity.
The 2019 Quetta bombing was a suicide bomb attack on an open marketplace in Quetta, Pakistan on 12 April, killing 21 people. The bombing took place near an area where many minority Shiite Muslims live. At least ten Hazara, including nine Shiites, were among the dead. Two paramilitary soldiers were also killed in the bombing. PM Imran Khan expressed condolences for the lives lost, directed the authorities to ensure the best medical treatment for the injured, and ordered an increase in security for Shiites and Hazara people. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and ISIL later accepted responsibility for the attack, stating that "their target were Hazara people."
On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, three churches in Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in the commercial capital, Colombo, were targeted in a series of coordinated ISIS-related terrorist suicide bombings. Later that day, two smaller explosions occurred at a housing complex in Dematagoda and a guest house in Dehiwala. A total of 269 people were killed, including at least 45 foreign nationals, three police officers, and eight suicide bombers. An additional 500 were injured. The church bombings were carried out during Easter services in Negombo, Batticaloa and Colombo; the hotels bombed included the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury and Tropical Inn. According to the State Intelligence Service, a second wave of attacks was planned, but was prevented due to government raids.
Events in the year 2021 in Uganda.
From late October to mid November 2021, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the Islamic State organization carried out four bombing attacks across Uganda.
On 16 June 2023 rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a jihadist group speculatively linked by analysts to the Islamic State, attacked a secondary school in Mpondwe, a town in western Uganda's Kasese District on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 42 people were killed, including 38 students; 8 were injured.
