Uganda Bomb Attack: ISIS Claims Responsibility, Kampala Investigating Islamist Link
Islamic state claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that killed at least one person in Uganda's capital Kampala on Saturday night, the militant group said in a statement posted in an affiliated Telegram channel late on Sunday.
The group said that some of its members detonated an explosive device in a bar where "members and spies of the Crusader Ugandan government were gathering" in Kampala.
The bomb, packed with nails and shrapnel, targeted a pork restaurant on the outskirts of the capital, police said on Sunday.
Information gathered indicated that three men, disguised as customers, visited the restaurant, placed a polythene bag under a table and left moments before the explosion, police said.
The explosion killed a 20-year-old waitress and injured three people, two of whom were in critical condition, police said, adding all indications suggest an act of domestic terror.
President Yoweri Museveni said the attack "seems to be a terrorist act".
In 2010, the Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab killed dozens of people in Kampala in a bomb attack, saying it was punishing Uganda for deploying troops in Somalia.
Uganda investigating Islamist link to bombing after IS responsibility claim
Uganda said on Monday it was investigating whether fighters allied with the militant group Islamic State (IS) had carried out a bombing in Kampala on Saturday night that killed one person and injured three others.
The bomb, set off in a restaurant in a suburb on the northern outskirts of the capital, killing a 20-year-old waitress, was an improvised device made from nails and other metal fragments, according to the police.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast in a statement posted on a Telegram channel late on Sunday. read more
The police said their investigations pointed to "an act of domestic terror".
"The attack was perpetrated by criminals that intend to terrorise the country and the people of Uganda," Abbas Byakagaba, the director for counter-terrorism, told a press conference on Monday.
Byakagaba said the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an IS-linked militant group, was one potential perpetrator.
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Ugandan police members and explosives experts secure the scene of an explosion in Komamboga, a suburb on the northern outskirts of Kampala, Uganda October 24, 2021. REUTERS/Abubaker LubowaRead More
The ADF has operated in dense forests in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo across the border with Uganda for more than three decades and began killing civilians in large numbers in 2014.
It has publicly aligned itself with Islamic State, although a June report from the United Nations found no evidence of direct support from Islamic State for the ADF.
ADF fighters have in the past been blamed for assassinations and attacks in Uganda. In July, the government blamed it for the attempted assassination of a government minister.
Police spokesman Fred Enanga told the press conference they believed the ADF had sleeper cells in the country and that they had arrested 13 of its collaborators last week.
It is only the second time IS has claimed responsibility for an attack in Uganda, after the group said on Oct. 8 it had exploded a small device inside a police station in the same suburb of Kampala, injuring several police officers.
The police have not reported that incident, however, and on Monday the police spokesman said there had been no such explosion.