Uganda Charges 15 With Terrorism for Role in ISIS-Linked Bombings

Police officers in personal protective equipment (PPE) investigate around the police cars destroyed by a bomb explosion in front of Central Police Station in Kampala, Uganda, on Nov. 16, 2021. Lawrence Kitatta/AFP via Getty Images

KAMPALA—Uganda on Thursday charged 15 people with offenses including terrorism and aiding terrorism related to their alleged role in bombings in the country’s capital and elsewhere in October and November that left at least nine people dead.

In the early hours of Nov. 16, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of a police station in the center of Kampala. Three minutes later, two other suicide bombers detonated along a road that leads to the parliament.

People extinguish a fire on cars caused by a bomb explosion near Parliament building in Kampala, Uganda, on Nov. 16, 2021 Ivan/AFP via Getty Images

Those bombings killed at least seven people, including the bombers, and injured dozens.

At least two people were killed in two other bombings in October, one at a restaurant and another on a bus.

ISIS terrorist group, which is allied with the rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), claimed responsibility for the Nov. 16 attack and the restaurant attack.

Originally a Ugandan group, the ADF has operated in the dense forests in the eastern Democratic Republic of 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 Congo in late November to take on the ISIS terrorists.

The suspects were remanded until Jan. 13, when they will appear in court again.