Terror Alert: Ugandan Forces Foil Terror Attack, as US Warns Citizens to Stay Indoors

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News, World News Saturday, September 13th, 2014

The U.S. Embassy in Kampala has warned Americans in Uganda to stay indoors after the country’s forces arrested several terror suspects and recovered explosives in an operation to foil an “imminent” terrorist attack on the city.

The country’s security forces have ratcheted up security in all public places, vowing to “effectively defeat whoever tried to endanger the lives and property of the people of Uganda,” according to a police press statement on Saturday.

The foiled terror plot was by the Somalia-based militant group Al-Shabaab, the U.S. Embassy in Kampala said; it did not specify the targets. However, local police said that the attack plot was a possible repeat of last September’s on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, based on the type of explosives seized.

Security were particularly concerned about crowded areas, and were still searching for more suspects . They have declined to release the identities or number of suspects arrested, but said they were of various nationalities.

Earlier this month, a U.S. airstrike killed Ahmed Godane, the terror group’s leader in Somalia. The group has since installed a new leader and vowed to avenge Godane’s death.