The Ugandan military announced that they had arrested a suspected al Shabaab militant who alongside several accomplices was planning a suicide attack at a funeral in Uganda. The man was detained at a hotel in Pader town, about 400 km north of the capital Kampala where bomb materials and a suicide vest were recovered.
It was revealed that the man was planning an attack on a funeral for Uganda’s deputy police chief, Paul Lokech, who died of natural causes on Aug. 21. He was a former senior military officer who had previously commanded Uganda’s troops in Somalia and fondly dubbed ‘the Lion of Mogadishu’.
The suspect has since been identified as Ugandan national Katumba Abdul, also known as Ben and investigations indicated that he intended to use the homemade bomb, suicide vests, detonators, ammonium sulphate, switches, and mobile phones used to detonate the device at mourners who were attending the funeral.
Lokech served two stints as a commander in Somalia with AMISOM where he led the units that routed al-Shabaab fighters from the capital Mogadishu in 2011, a feat that earned him his nickname; the Lion of Mogadishu.
It is believed that the thwarted attack was a mission of revenge by the Al Shabaab on the people who were mourning the deceased’s death having suppressed the Al Shabaab extremists and their associates in Somalia. Additionally, Katumba is believed to be part of a terror cell that had been planning an attack in July in Kampala for the anniversary of the July 11, 2010 attack, which claimed the lives of about 74 people and left more than 80 with serious injuries.
