Police said Monday that two people had been confirmed dead and several others injured in an explosion reported on a bus in Mpigi District in central Uganda.
By the time of filing this story, a team of bomb experts had been dispatched to Lungala, along the Kampala-Masaka highway, where the deadly explosion occurred on the bus belonging to Swift Safaris Bus company under registration number UAU 989T, at around 5 pm.
“The bus was travelling from Kampala to Bushenyi. So far two people have been confirmed dead and several other victims including injured persons being evacuated from the scene.
The explosion comes three days after the bomb attack in Komamboga. The scene has been cordoned off pending a thorough assessment and investigation by the bomb experts.
We shall periodically give updates surrounding the incident,” police spokesperson, CP Fred Enanga said in a Monday statement.
Photos and videos shared on social media showed a man’s head leaning against a shuttered window, with reports indicating that he was one of the victims of the explosion.
The bus explosion happened just hours after the Islamic State (IS) group on Monday claimed responsibility for a deadly weekend bombing at pork joint in Komamboga, a northern suburb of the capital, Kampala that police called an ‘act of domestic terrorism.’
Investigators said a 20-year-old woman was killed and three others injured in a blast at a popular roadside eatery in northern Kampala on Saturday evening.
Police said the crude bomb left underneath a table indicated the work of an unsophisticated local outfit and played down any connection to foreign networks.
However, in a message sent via its communication channels, the Islamic State’s Central Africa Province said it carried out the attack and claimed it killed two people and injured five.
“A security detachment from the soldiers of the Caliphate was able to detonate an explosive device inside a tavern in which elements and spies for the Crusader Ugandan army were gathered,” read part of the statement quoted by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant communications.
On October 8, IS claimed its first attack in Uganda, alleging a unit from the same Central Africa operation bombed a police post in Kampala that resulted in injuries.
No explosion or any injuries were reported by authorities or local media at the time, though police later confirmed a minor incident had occurred without providing further details.
However, in the following days, both Britain and France updated their travel advice, saying terrorists were “very likely to try and carry out attacks in Uganda” and urging vigilance in crowded areas.
In 2010, twin bombings in Kampala targeting fans watching the World Cup final left 76 people dead.
Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for the blasts at a restaurant and at a rugby club.
The attack, the first outside Somalia by Al-Shabaab, was seen as revenge for Uganda sending troops to the war-torn country as part of an African Union mission to confront the insurgents.
President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday vowed that those responsible for the latest attack would be caught and expressed condolences to those killed and injured.
