Six people have been confirmed dead in an attack on Kampala Tuesday morning.
Three civilians and 3 suicide bombers died in the attacks at Raja Chambers and Jubilee Insurance as well as at the Central Police Station (CPS), Kampala.
33 people were left injured. Of these, 5 are critical.
According to police, the incidents happened at 10.03am and 10.06am respectively.
“The first attack occurred near the check point to the Central Police Station, in Kampala at around 10.03am,” Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga said, “The fresh footage on CCTV clearly indicate how a male adult, putting on a black jacket, and carrying a backpack, detonated himself. He died instantly and the spillover effect caused additional injuries to police officers and other civilians who were within a radius of 30 metres. Two other people have been confirmed dead, while 17 others sustained very critical injuries. Those injured were within the section covering the point of impact and the front desk area at the Central Police Station.”
Another bomb blast occurred within three minutes at Raja Chambers and Jubilee Insurance Building along Parliament Avenue.
According to Enanga, two suicide bombers were clearly captured, on motorcycles, disguising as boda-boda riders.
“They detonated the bombs they were carrying on themselves, which killed them instantly.
Both scenes have been cordoned off by our Joint Counter-terror task teams,” he told the media Tuesday afternoon.
So far, 23 injured victims (5 critical) have been rushed to Mulago National Referral Hospital for further treatment.
These attacks come 22 days after the last suicide bomb attack on a Swift Safaris Bus.
Enanga says that: “It clearly shows that the ADF linked radicalized groups, still have a desire to carry out lethal attacks, on soft targets, with suicide attackers and improvised explosive devices.
These kinds of threats remain significant because IEDs and suicide bomb jackets can easily be built from common household items found in local markets, retail shops and supermarkets. Many businesses unconsciously sell these items that are used to sell bombs, which calls for extra vigilance.”
He encouraged businesses and the public to voluntarily report suspicious activities, such as buying large amounts of chemicals and materials that can be used to build bombs.
“We do strongly condemn the perpetrators of those senseless and heinous attacks within the city,” Enanga said.
Although three suicide bombers died in the double bomb attacks, Enanga says “our CT response teams managed to pursue a fourth suicide bomb attacker, and covered him at Bwaise. They shot and injured him, and immediately after, recovered an unexploded improvised explosive device, at Nansana-Katooke, at his home, which the bomb squad was going to neutralize. We are now pursuing other members of the terror groups.”
Enanga says today’s breakthrough on the side of the terrorists is a sign that more needs to be done.
“Our Joint Counter Terror teams, and mitigated bomb threats and attacks for the last 22 days, today’s breakthrough attacks show that we still need to do more, to pre-empt, penetrate and prevent deadly attacks by domestic extremists in the days to come. As you are all aware, we have managed to counter several bomb threats, and also neutralized several suspicious packages and device-related incidents across the nation.
For now, the bomb threats are still active, and cannot be solved in one go, which calls for the popular intelligence and vigilance of the community,” Enanga said, reassuring Ugandans and visitors that we continue to pursue all terrorists, their agents, operatives and collaborators, to help prevent the re-emergence of such acts of domestic terror.”
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