Two tourists, driver killed in Uganda national park attack
Nairobi, Oct 18 (EFE).- A Ugandan driver and two foreign tourists have been killed in an attack on their vehicle in a Ugandan national park, authorities confirmed to EFE.
“The deceased, whose names are withheld, include a Ugandan, a UK citizen and a South African citizen. They were traveling under Gorilla and Wildlife Safaris, a local tour company,” the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) said in a statement released late Tuesday after the incident.
The attackers set fire to the vehicle in which the victims were traveling in Queen Elizabeth National Park in the country’s southwest, UWA spokesperson Bashir Hangi told EFE.
Police spokesman Fred Enanga confirmed the “cowardly terrorist attack,” which he attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
The ADF is a rebel group originating in Uganda that operates out of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and that has ties to the Islamic State terror organization.
“Our joint forces responded immediately upon receiving the information and are aggressively pursuing the suspected ADF rebels,” Enanga wrote on X.
“We express our deepest condolences to the families of the victims.”
The event occurred on a road leading to the town of Katwe near the DRC border.
The clients and their driver had been on a boat safari in the afternoon and were heading to their hotel when the attackers intercepted them around 6.30 pm local time (15:30 GMT), a tour guide from the area, who requested anonymity, told EFE.
The attack occurred two days after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said that security forces had foiled an ADF plot to bomb churches.
Museveni also reported Sunday that the Ugandan Army carried out air strikes on ADF camps on Saturday in four eastern DRC border locations, and warned of retaliation by the group.
This is not the first time that Uganda has been put on alert by the threat of terrorism.
In November 2021 there were several attacks in the country, with suicide bombers detonating explosives in the center of the capital, Kampala, causing at least eight deaths, including the attackers. The authorities also blamed those attacks on the ADF.
The most serious ADF attack in Uganda occurred in June, when the insurgents killed at least 42 people, including 37 students, in a school in the district of Kasese near the DRC border.
The ADF is labeled as a ‘terrorist’ organization by the United States. EFE
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