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Uganda detains man suspected of planning bomb attack on church

Police spokesman Patrick Onyango confirmed that hundreds of people were evacuated from the Rubaga Miracle Centre cathedral after a 28 year-old man tried to activate an explosive device among worshippers.

Authorities have been looking for three other suspects who have been sent on similar bombing missions in Uganda. Their motives are unclear, however, they can draw a parallel between these attacks and the Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). 

Mr Onyango said: “We carried out a controlled detonation of the improvised explosive device consisting of nails, a motorbike battery, a charger and a telephone handset that was to be used in the attack”. 

When the police arrested 28-year-old Kintu Ibrahim, they found a bomb in his rucksack. They suspect he might have had accomplices. The perimeter of the cathedral was cordoned off; sniffer dogs and members of bomb squads inspected the area but could not find any further threats. 

According to evangelical pastor Robert Kayanja: “The terrorist was a few metres from the entrance, but the security forces intervened, and he was arrested before he could enter the church and detonate the bomb”. 

ADF was originally a Ugandan rebel group but was routed more than two decades ago and escaped to the jungles of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where it has since been stationed.

The police had been warned of a possible attack in busy places, including churches and shopping centres. In June, jihadists from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, killed 42 people, including 37 pupils, in a secondary school in western Uganda close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was the deadliest attack in Uganda since the double bombing in Kampala in 2010, which killed 76 people in a raid claimed by the Somali-based Islamist group Shebab.

Source: https://premierchristian.news/

 

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