Three dead in Kampala twin suicide bombs -VIDEO
Tuesday November 16 2021
Police officers at the scene where one of the twin bombs exploded at Kooki Towers, near Central Police Station on November 16, 2021. Several police officers were injured. PHOTO | RACHEL MABALA | NMG
At least three people have been confirmed dead and more than 30 injured following the twin bomb attacks in Uganda’s capital Kampala, police confirm.
Three suspected suicide bombers were also confirmed dead.
The blasts went off three minutes apart, with the first exploding at Central Police Station at 10.03am killing two people and injuring 17, police spokesperson Fred Enanga told journalists at a press briefing at the Police Headquarters at Naguru, a Kampala suburb.
Uganda deployed the military in Kampala City shortly after the explosions on November 16, 2021. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG
The second blast, which killed one person and injured 16, went off at Parliament Avenue at 10.06am, detonated by two men riding on two motorcycles, CCTV footage released by the police showed.
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga told journalists that five of the injured, including two police officers, are in critical condition.
A fourth suspected attacker was intercepted enroute to detonating the bomb. He was shot and injured by police.
“We pursued the fourth attacker and shot him in Bwaise. He is only identified as Moze. We found a suicide jacket and other materials for making bombs at his home in Nansana, Katooke, Wamala Parish,” Mr Enanga said.
Read: Explosions rock Kampala
Ambulances on standby along Parliament Avenue shortly after the explosions on November 16, 2021. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG
Earlier in the day, Dr Rosemary Byanyima, the deputy director of the National Referral Hospital at Mulago, said the hospital received 27 injured people.
“Most of the patients have been stabilised and are responding well,” she said, adding that some patients are in critical condition.
Police cordon off the crime scene at Parliament Avenue in Uganda's capital Kampala. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG
The Tuesday attacks are the third in less than one month, and police warn that “these are not the type of enemies you can easily uproot” because they live within the community and use things that are readily available or those sold in shops – such as nails, bicycle ball bearings and scrap metal – to make bombs.
On October 24, a nail bomb exploded and killed one person at a restaurant in the Komamboga suburb, north of Kampala, and two days later, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb on a bus.
“We strongly believe there are other terrorists who are part of this group, so we ask Ugandans to be more vigilant,” the police sportsperson warned.
Parliament Avenue in Uganda's capital Kampala where a bomb was detonated near many government offices on November 16, 2021. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG
Mr Enanga explained that the nature of the attacks, which involve suicide bombers, points to Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel group that follows Islamist ideology, and has been operating out of eastern Congo since the 1990s but with sleeper cells in Uganda.
The ADF has recently allied to the Islamic State and transformed into the Central Africa unit of the Islamic State, according to security intelligence.
- Additional reporting Nelson Naturinda