Yesterday, the US Treasury Department sanctioned three Islamic State facilitators based in Zambia, Uganda, and South Africa. The three have operated as part of a coordinated network that moves money between Islamic State franchises in Somalia, South Africa, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Mozambique.
At least 62 people have been killed by the Islamic State’s local arm in western Uganda since June.
The Islamic State’s Central Africa Province, known locally as the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, mounted its second attack in western Uganda since last Friday. The mobile unit currently operating inside Uganda represents the first sustained guerrilla presence in the country since 2007.
The story of the Pan-Ugandan Liberation Initiative, a short-lived splinter faction of the more infamous Islamic State-loyal ADF that was destroyed earlier this year, provides important details and context in the ADF’s overall ideological trajectory and history.
The massive raid comes as Shabaab is facing its biggest challenge to its rule and territory in over a decade.
The raid also marks the first time that the Allied Democratic Forces, the local name for the Islamic State’s Central Africa Province, has struck inside Butembo city.
Following a delay of over two weeks, the Islamic State has officially taken credit for the Christmas day suicide bombing in eastern Congo. The bombing is just the fourth such operation conducted by the Islamic State’s local wing.
The Islamic State has claimed a series of bombings, including suicide bombings, inside Uganda over the past month. This represents a significant shift in the overall threat from the Islamic State’s wing based in the DRC.
The Al Qaeda branch claims its men enacted “heavy losses” to AMISOM and Kenyan troops in southern Somalia. African Union troops and the Somali government have stated otherwise, however.
Today’s claim marks the first time the Islamic State has claimed any activity in Central Africa.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) says that 12 Ugandan soldiers were killed in an ambush by Shabaab yesterday. The al Qaeda branch claims the casualties were much higher and a local official told the press that 24 bodies were carried away from the scene.
In a newly released video, Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mahmoud Rage addresses graduates of a training camp for foreign fighters. “Many” of the graduates are from Kenya and, Rage says, they should form an “army that will conquer Kenya so that we may return to our families and relatives in a state of honor and glory.”
The photos show Shabaab’s Sheikh Abu Zubayr Battalion again overrunning an African Union base in Somalia.
Ugandan authorities have reportedly arrested Jamal Kiyemba, an ex-Guantanamo detainee, in connection with the assassination of a top counterterrorism prosecutor late last month.
Police have arrested 19 suspected Shabaab members, said to be foreigners, who were planning imminent attacks in Kampala and other towns. The suspects were seized during raids over the past two days that also netted quantities of explosives. Although the operation is ongoing, authorities said the recent US Embassy warning of an imminent attack “has […]
Security forces claimed to have foiled an imminent Shabaab terrorist attack on one of Uganda’s installations, and to have made arrests in Kampala in the case. The US Embassy warned about the possibility of an attack and said security had been stepped up around sites such as Entebbe airport. The Internal Affairs Ministry also noted […]
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Just days after the US Embassy warned of a “specific” terror threat to Entebbe Airport, gunmen allegedly from a local militia attacked three police stations and a military barracks in western Uganda near the Congo border, killing over 60 people, including several policemen as well as some 40 civilians. Security forces claimed to have killed […]
The US Embassy warned of a “specific” terrorist threat to Entebbe Airport. Security has been heightened in the city, and police said that terrorists had already conducted trial runs of the attack. Shabaab suicide bombers killed 70 people in a 2010 attack in Kampala during the World Cup, and the group has threatened to attack […]
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The US Embassy warned of possible terrorist attacks in Kampala in May or June. Targets of the “specific threat” include places of worship, and particularly those attended by foreigners.
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Police issued a terror alert for Kampala regarding an imminent attack. This is the third such alert since September.
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The police force issued a red alert and recalled all its officers from leave after warnings that Shabaab is seeking to execute a Westgate-type attack in Uganda. A police spokesman said that “[o]ur intelligence and that of the Americans show an imminent terror attack is likely.”
Ugandan authorities beefed up security after receiving warnings that Shabaab may try to execute a Westgate Mall-type attack in Kampala. The US Embassy in Kampala issued a warning on Oct. 15 about the plot. Ugandan police warned on Oct. 2 that wanted Shabaab terrorist Andreas Martin Mueller a.k.a. Ahmed Khaled traveled to Kampala from Limulu, […]