19-year-old arrested in Iganga over assembling explosives 

A 19-year-old boy has been arrested in Iganga, eastern Uganda for allegedly assembling explosives.  

The suspect whose identities have been withheld has been transferred to the CID headquarters in Kampala. The suspect was arrested on Tuesday in an operation conducted in Busei A village where he was allegedly assembling explosives in his room.

 

During the operation, police recovered petrol, wires, steel bars, and unspecified metals, that he was using to manufacture explosives. They also recovered radio calls suspected to have been stolen from police posts in different parts of the country.

Samuel Asiimwe, the Busoga East police commander, says that the suspect and others still at large masterminded the attacks on police installations across the country. A police officer who preferred anonymity and is privy to the investigations says that the suspect confessed to having joined the Allied Democratic Force (ADF) rebels in 2018.

He adds that the suspect acquired skills in assembling explosives while in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before he was deployed back home to recruit other juveniles. Sayid Miyingo, the defense secretary of Busei A Village blamed landlords, who are reluctant to register new tenants.