Uganda, July 8 – Islamist extremists attacked three police stations and a military barracks in western Uganda Sunday, killing 17 people. Of the insurgents, 41 were killed in crossfire and 12 more have been taken prisoner in hopes of extricating information from them.
The scene was eerily reminiscent of clashes between the government and Islamist rebels less than a decade ago in the same region. The perpetrators in the earlier conflict were the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamist splinter group that intends to wrest away control of Uganda from its Christian majority.
After a resounding defeat by the Ugandan Army in 2004, the ADF’s numbers were significantly reduced in the area, with the remaining fighters moving to the jungles of eastern Congo in retreat. The attackers in the recent clash have not so far been linked to the ADF, though the latter is known to still hold interests in the region.
The government is acutely aware of the dangers presented to its oil fields in the Albertine rift basin by recent insurgencies, and anxiety is rising in Kampala that the loosely governed eastern Congo is harbouring even greater threats that have been linked to Al-Qaeda.
The clash is only the latest of communal tensions that have been steadily escalating since the ADF renewed their efforts to recruit in 2013. Only recently, a woman was found decapitated on the altar of a church near the border, the episode sparking violent backlash against Muslims in the area.
Even as the government states that the clashes are tribal in nature, evidence is rising that Muslim extremists have brought the East Congo conflict across the border into Uganda.
-INDIA TODAY
