The UPDF Army tracked down and killed six Suspected ADF fighters on Lake Edward believed to have hatched the attack on tourists in the Queen Elizabeth National Park last month. The attack left two foreign tourists and their Ugandan driver guide dead.
According to the spokesman of the UPDF, the fighters were killed as they tried to sneak back into Uganda on a canoe before the army pounced on them. One of the fighters who has been identified as Njovu, the combatant group leader was captured alive.
“Our forces have been tracking down this group and last night (Tuesday), they tried to sneak against using a boat on Lake Edward off Kayanja landing site and our forces doing night operations managed to get them this time round,” Col Akiiki, Deputy Spokesman of the UPDF said.
He said a combined force of the intelligence, Special Forces Command, UPDF Marine and infantry squads from the 221 and 301 brigades swung into action.
The UPDF had tracked group for over sometime and their time finally came. The incident happened at around 3am or 4am in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
On October, 17, David Jim Barlow,a British citizen and his South African wife, Emmaretia Celia Geyer who had come to Uganda for the honeymoon holiday vacation together with their Ugandan tourist driver guide Eric Alyai, were killed inside Queen Elizabeth National Park.
The armed assailants would later torch their vehicle and it is said some of the group’s belongings were robbed.
The UPDF has since deployed several units to track the group behind the attack.
Speaking on Wednesday, Maj Gen Dick Olum, the commander of Operation Shuja credited the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) for credible intelligence that was relied on to carry out the operation.
He said after being shot at by the UPDF, the ADF rebels tried to swim back into DRC but their attempts were futile.
“This was a total of seven fighters, on attacking them, four of them were killed and drowned with all their weapons. Two of them were shot at, badly injured and tried to swim back across the lake but could not go further. They only died at the shores of Lake Edward. One of them was injured but is alive and captured,” Maj Gen Olum said.
He said in total, six ADF fighters were killed and one captured alive. Following the operation, several items including solar panels and bags were got from the ADF rebels.
The Operation Shuja commander said from the luggage got from the group, a number of items picked from the tourists who were killed alongside their driver in Queen Elizabeth National Park were recovered.
To this, the Uganda army recovered the driving permit belonging to Eric Alyai, the Ugandan driver killed alongside the two tourists.
Also recovered from the luggage were DRC army uniforms, bullet magazines, sauce pans and clothes.
The splinter group’s commander captured after his juniors were killed has been named as 31 year old Abdul Rashid Kyoto, alias Tembo, alias Njovu, and alias Buffalo.
Maj Gen Dick Olum said the hunt for all ADF splinter groups is still continuing but urged locals, especially in Kasese to be on the lookout for strangers in their area and report them to authorities, or else these could be ADF members.