By Bayan Nalubwama
Uganda Police has confirmed six people dead, thirty three injured and five others left in critical condition after the two deadly suicide attacks that happened in Kampala on Tuesday Morning.
While addressing journalists at Police headquarters on Tuesday, Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga revealed that three of the deceased were suicide bombers.
The first suicide attack happened near the checkpoint to the Central Police Station (CPS) at 10:03am and the second the second bomb blast occurred within three minutes at Raja Chambers and Jubilee Insurance Building along the Parliament Avenue.
“The fresh footages on CCTV clearly indicate how a male adult, putting on a black jacket, and carrying a back pack, 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” Enanga said.
He continued to reveal that the people injured were within the section covering the point of impact and the front desk area at the Central Police Station.
“Two suicide bombers were clearly captured, on motorcycles, disguising as bodaboda riders. They detoriated the bombs they were carrying on themselves that killed them instantly.
Police 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. The bomb squared is yet to neutralize the explosive.
The Tuesday attacks come 22 days after the last suicide bomb attack on a Swift Safaris Bus that was moving from Kampala to Bushenyi and according to Enanga, 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.
Police 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, were going to neutralize. We are now pursuing other members of the terror groups.
“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. We encourage 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.” He continued to say.
He further advised citizens to be more vigilant as there are still so many domestic terror cells ready to disrupt peace in the country.
