Police say they have recovered 5 more bombs as country battles with terrorist threats

Police have said they have recovered five more bombs after the Sunday incident in which an Improvised Explosive Device(IED) was safely detonated at  Rubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral belonging to Pastor Robert Kayanja in Kampala.

According to police spokesperson, Fred Enanga, the arrest of 28-year-old Kintu Abdurahman who was in possession of the IED as he tried to access the church in Rubaga saw security interrogate him for further information on the terror plot.

“Upon interrogation he identified how his cell was involving six members including himself and we are now searching for other five conspirators who are still at large. The suspect also led us to their two-room rented house in Lungujja Zone eight where we recovered three constructed IEDs that we detonated and recovered ingredients of evidential value,” Enanga said on Monday.

The police spokesperson revealed that two other suspected IEDs have since been recovered in Bunamwaya and at around Mabiito in Nateete and that police counter terrorism teams are set to detonate them.

The operation

According to police, the terror threat at Rubaga Miracle Centre Church on Sunday was thwarted after a counter terrorism officer deployed at the entrance of the church became suspicious of a young man with a bag.

“The sniffer dog had sniffed every bag, container and package but wasn’t able to detect the bomb which was inside a food flask.  However, our counter terrorism officer used his instincts and expertise as well as the bomb detector to check the bag and detect the IED. The officer had observed suspicious movement of the suspect and used the bomb detector to detect the IED,” Enanga said.

According to police, the suspect arrested on Sunday was on the wanted list of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence(CMI), the Ugandan army’s intelligence army.

He explained that whereas at the time of the arrest police didn’t know the suspect, when the information was shared with sister security agencies, they were able to indicate that he was on CMI’s wanted list.

“The suspect is a resident of Mbizinnya village, Buwama sub county in Mpigi district whose intention was to enter, place and later detonate the IED at Miracle Centre and later use a remote control to detonate and cause death. However, the plot was stopped before it could move further.”

Enanga said the interrogation will help security get information about the terror group that the suspect belongs to but also help in the hunt for his colleagues.

Battle with threats

According to police, this is yet another pointer of the threat that the country is in regards terrorism and the battle to neutralise and bust terrorist cells in the country is still on.

In July, UK government warned of attacks that “could be indiscriminate or against foreign nationals or places frequented by foreign nationals.”

The alert by the UK government to its citizens however didnt specify the exact place targeted by the terrorists.

Ugandan security has since November 2021 when twin blasts rocked the Central Police Station and along Parliamentary Avenue busted several terrorist cells and several members either arrested or killed.

The Allied Democratic Forces(ADF) has been blamed for the November 2021 attacks in Kampala and to this, the UPDF has since launched an operation against the terrorist organisation inside DRC.