Sniper gang targets government cars with petrol bombs

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga.

What you need to know:

  • Police spokesperson Fred Enanga told the media in Kampala yesterday that the anonymous group carried out the attacks around lunch time last week and they were captured on CCTV cameras on February 26.

Security agencies are investigating a suspected sniper gang that is hurling improvised petrol bombs targeting, especially government vehicles.
The security agencies said the unidentified group has carried out four separate attacks in Kampala with one successful case where they burnt a vehicle parked at Kawempe Police Station.
Police yesterday said one suspect had been arrested while two others are still on the run.

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga told the media in Kampala yesterday that the anonymous group carried out the attacks around lunch time last week and they were captured on CCTV cameras on February 26.
“They went to the offices of Presidential Adviser Kakooza Mutale at Kapapaali in Mulago and poured petrol on a yellow bus that had been parked at the roadside. They set it ablaze, but the residents were able to put out the fire,” Mr Enanga said yesterday. A mobile phone suspected to belong to one of the attackers was recovered at the scene.

Maj Mutale is a mobiliser of the ruling party National Resistance Movement and has been keeping vehicles with the party colours in his office yard.
Mr Enanga said the gang seem to be well-coordinated, but police have not established their motive and identity. He said the attackers later went to Bwaise traffic lights where they attacked a vehicle of Ministry of Health with three occupants.
He said one attacker hurled a jerrycan filled with petrol at the vehicle, prompting the driver to speed off before the assailant threw the fire torch.

“By the time the suspect who had a fire torch attempted to throw it in the car, the driver had already driven off. The three occupants doused in petrol drove to Wandegeya Police Station where they reported the case,” he said.
The suspects moved to Kawempe Police Station and set ablaze a vehicle that had been impounded by traffic officers.

He said the gang also attempted to burn a fuel truck at a petrol station near Kampala Capital City Authority hospital in Kawempe Town, but failed.
“If the truck had caught fire and exploded, it was going to affect residents in the 400 metre radius,” Mr Enanga said.