Police reported on Tuesday that security forces were in pursuit of suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels. These rebels had killed two foreign tourists and a Ugandan in Queen Elizabeth National Park.
“We have witnessed a cowardly terrorist attack on two foreign tourists and a Ugandan in Queen Elizabeth National Park,” said police spokesperson Fred Enanga.
According to the police, the assailants set fire to the victims’ tour vehicle. “Our combined forces swiftly responded upon receiving the information and are actively tracking down the suspected ADF rebels. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the victims’ families,” added ASP Enanga.
Photographs widely circulated on various social media platforms on Tuesday evening showed the victims’ bodies lying near their burnt vehicle, drenched in blood.
The three individuals were attacked on Katwe Road, between Lake Nyamununka and Kabatooro, in the Western Uganda District of Kasese.
This incident is not the first time that tourists have been targeted in Queen Elizabeth National Park.
On April 2, 2019, American tourist Kimberly Endicott and her guide Jean-Paul Mirenge were kidnapped by suspected terrorists at QENP.
The government paid a ransom for their release five days later.
This recent attack comes shortly after President Museveni announced that security forces had thwarted a bomb attack on churches by the ADF rebel group.
The ADF had produced two bombs that they intended to plant in churches in Kibibi, Butambala. Fortunately, the devices were reported to the police and safely defused.
The ADF has declared allegiance to the Islamic State group. On the preceding Sunday, President Museveni disclosed that Ugandan forces had conducted airstrikes against ADF positions in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
While he did not provide specific details, he noted that a significant number of terrorists were killed.
The president cautioned that the ADF could attempt “random terrorist acts” in Uganda in response to the airstrikes.
In September, the police reported that they had foiled another bomb attack on a Kampala cathedral, arresting a man who was suspected of attempting to activate an explosive device among worshippers.
In June, ADF militia members carried out a deadly attack, killing 42 people, including 37 students in a high school in western Uganda near the border with the DR Congo.
This was one of the deadliest attacks in Uganda since the 2010 double attack in Kampala that claimed 76 lives, an incident claimed by the Somali-based Islamist group al-Shabaab.
A United Nations expert panel on DR Congo, in its most recent report in June, confirmed that ISIS had been providing financial support to the ADF since at least 2019.