Police want Usafi mosque imam, five others extradited

Fred Enanga

Kampala- Uganda is engaging the government of Mozambique to bring back six Ugandans including the leader of Usafi Mosque who were arrested in on terror charges.

The six people are wanted by Ugandan authorities on offences ranging from terrorism to kidnap-for-ransom.

Police spokesman, Commissioner of Police (CP) Fred Enanga, said they are using other means other than extradition to bring back Abdul Rahman Faisal Nsamba, Mansour Kigozi and four others to Uganda to face justice.

“They are wanted. Some escaped the raid at the Usafi and ended up in Mozambique where they were hiding,” CP Enanga said yesterday
He said they were unable to bring them back using the Interpol extradition process since Uganda and Mozambique have no treaty on the same.
He said that they were working out other means to bring the suspects back to Uganda. He didnot name them.

Uganda and Mozambique military officials signed a memorandum of understanding on dealing with terrorism and such fighters in June last year.

Faisal, Kigozi and four others were arrested after a raid on a terrorist camp in Cabo Delgado District, Mocimboa da Praia, in north Mozambique, which is infested with Islamic terrorists.

They have been in Mozambique detention facility for nearly a year.
Mozambique security forces said the information they obtained from the trio helped them locate terrorist camps in the restive northern region.
Their arrest is said to have triggered the Ugandan security agencies’ raids on Usafi Mosque, which is in central business district of Kampala City, and homes in the suburbs that were run by Rahman’s affiliates.

In the raid, two suspected leaders were shot dead and more than 80 children and women rescued.

Accusations
Security forces accused the leaders of the mosque of being Islamic fundamentalists and nine were charged in court with kidnap and murder of Susan Magara in February 2018.

It is not yet clear whether President Museveni’s visit in Mozambique two months after Usafi mosque raid had any bearing to the arrest of the trio.
President Museveni visited with a military and diplomatic delegation including Minister Kutesa, Col Bright Rwamirama, the Veteran Affairs Minister, Maj Gen Proscovia Nalweyiso, the Senior Presidential Adviser on Security and Ambassador Richard Kabonero. Others were Gen Caleb Akandwanaho aka Salim Saleh, Lt Gen Ivan Koreta and Col Bosco Omule.

President Museveni also visited Pemba City in Cabo Delgado, a province where the suspects were arrested from. It is the same province in which President Museveni and other Front for National Salvation fighters underwent military training in the 1970s.