KAMPALA, UGANDA – Uganda on Thursday charged 15 people with offenses including terrorism and aiding terrorism over their alleged roles in bombings in the country’s capital and elsewhere in October and November that left at least six people dead.
Early on November 16, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of a police station in the center of Kampala. Three minutes later, two suicide bombers detonated devices along a road that leads to parliament.
Those bombings killed at least four people and injured dozens.
At least two people were killed in two other bombings in October, one at a restaurant and another on a bus.
Islamic State, which is allied with the rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), claimed responsibility for the November 16 attack and the restaurant attack.
According to a charge sheet seen by Reuters, the 15 people, among other accusations, ‘intentionally and unlawfully, manufactured, delivered, placed and detonated an improvised explosive device … with intent to cause death or serious bodily injuries,’ for the purposes of influencing the government or intimidating the public.
Originally a Ugandan group, the ADF has operated in the dense forests in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, across the border with Uganda, for more than three decades. The group began killing civilians in large numbers in 2014.
The attacks in October and November prompted the Ugandan military to deploy in eastern DRC in late November to take on the Islamist fighters.
The suspects were remanded until January 13, when they will appear in court again.
