Ugandan authorities have sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for his involvement in a failed suicide bomb attack on the funeral of a prominent army commander three years ago.
Rashid Katumba was apprehended in August 2021, found in possession of explosives in Pader, a northern Ugandan town, just before the funeral of Major General Paul Lokech, known as the “Lion of Mogadishu.” The plot was linked to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a terrorist group which has been active in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The International Crimes Division of Uganda’s High Court delivered the sentence on August 23, also sentencing two other men involved in the suicide bomb plot. Two other defendants, Luyenjje Najjimu and Arafat Jamil Kiyemba, were also convicted and sentenced to five years in prison each. All three men, Ugandan nationals, admitted to being part of a terrorist organization.
Major General Paul Lokech, who died in 2021 from blood clots, had earned his reputation by leading operations in Somalia under the African Union Mission (AMISOM) that drove Al-Shabaab insurgents out of Mogadishu in 2011.
The ADF, originally a group of rebels from Uganda, has been responsible for numerous civilian deaths and terrorist acts, both in Uganda and across the border in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The group claimed responsibility for the murder of a honeymooning couple in Uganda in 2023.
Since late 2021, the Ugandan and Congolese armies have carried out joint military operations against the ADF in the regions of North Kivu and Ituri in the DRC.