Ugandan police said yesterday that a deadly explosion that killed one person and injured three others at a roadside eatery in the capital Kampala was an “act of domestic terror”.
Police spokesman Fred Enanga said the attackers arrived at the popular grilled meat joint in northern Kampala at around 8:30pm (1730 GMT) on Saturday carrying a plastic shopping bag that they placed under a table.
Shortly after leaving thirty minutes later, an explosion ripped through the eatery.
“The suspects detonated the device after they left the scene,” Enanga told reporters, describing the explosive as “crude” and containing nails and metal fragments.
“All indications suggest an act of domestic terror.”
President Yoweri Museveni earlier said the blast “seems to be a terrorist act” and vowed to hunt down those responsible.
“The public should not fear, we shall defeat this criminality like we have defeated all the other criminality committed by the pigs who don’t respect life,” he said.
Enanga said the group appeared unsophisticated and investigators believed they could track their whereabouts using evidence found at the scene.
They did not elaborate on the identity or motivation of the suspected attackers.
Police said the blast killed 20-year-old Emily Nyinaneza, a waitress. Three others were in hospital, including two in a critical condition.
Masked anti-terrorism police attended the scene yesterday as forensic officers in white overalls combed for evidence.
The explosion occurred about two hours after the start of a nationwide dusk-to-dawn coronavirus curfew.
Security forces rushed to the scene in Komamboga, a fast-growing suburb about eight kilometres north of Kampala city centre.
Local mayor Emmanuel Sserunjogi said the bombing took place in an area popular with young revellers looking for roasted meat and drinks on a night out.
“The community are frightened. It was such a terrible act. People were woken up by the sound of the bomb,” he said.
It is the first such deadly attack in many years in Kampala, a bustling city of 2mn on the shores of Lake Victoria.
But it followed an uptick in recent weeks of signs and warnings that a strike could be imminent.
Ugandan police officers investigate at a crime scene following a bomb blast on Saturday night in Kampala, yesterday.
