Uganda Bombings (Al Shabab) July 2010
On July 11, 2010, three bombs detonated in Kampala, Uganda, targeting crowds watching the FIFA World Cup finals, resulting in the deaths of 76 individuals, including both Ugandans and foreign nationals. The first explosion occurred at an Ethiopian restaurant, while the other two bombs went off at a rugby club where fans had gathered. These attacks were attributed to the Somali militant group Al Shabab, which stated the bombings were a response to Uganda's military involvement in Somalia, where Ugandan troops were part of an African Union peacekeeping force supporting the Somali government against Al Shabab. The group had previously threatened attacks outside Somalia, making this incident a significant escalation of their operations. Following the bombings, Ugandan authorities arrested around 20 suspects and discovered an unexploded bomb, highlighting ongoing security concerns. The attacks drew international attention, prompting discussions about the rising threat of Al Shabab and its connections to broader jihadist movements. The bombings underscored the complexities of regional security in East Africa and the challenges posed by militant groups operating across national borders.
Subject Terms
Uganda Bombings (Al Shabab) July 2010
Summary: Three bombs exploded on July 11, 2010, at two sites in Kampala, Uganda, killing 76 people who were among crowds watching the finals of the 2010 World Cup soccer competition on large outdoors television screens. One bomb, at an Ethiopian restaurant, killed about 15 people, including one American; the other two bombs exploded at a rugby club stadium, killing the balance of the victims. Responsibility for the bombings was claimed by Al Shabab, the Islamist, fundamentalist guerrilla army attempting to seize the parts of Somalia it did not already control. In its claim of responsibility, Shabab cited Uganda's contribution of soldiers to the 6,000-strong African Union force in Somalia protecting the established government from the Al Shabab assault. Ugandan police said later they had arrested about 20 people, including both Somalis and Ugandans, and had recovered an unexploded bomb evidently meant to be planted elsewhere. The unexploded bomb was in the form of a suicide vest modified to work when buried; Al Shabab said there were no suicide bombers involved in the attacks.
Date: July 11, 2010
Place(s): Kampala, Uganda.
Incident: On July 11, 2010, during television broadcasts of the soccer World Cup, three bombs exploded in Kampala. The first went off in an Ethiopian restaurant in the center of the Ugandan capital.
The second and third bombs exploded at a rugby club on the other side of the city, where a large crowd was watching the soccer match.
A fourth bomb, unexploded, was found in a third location, a bar, in Kampala.
The attacks, at about 10:30 P.M. local time, came during the World Cup championship match between Netherlands in Spain, taking place in South Africa. The three bombs killed at least 76. The victims included about 60 Ugandans and about 16 foreigners, including citizens of India, Ireland, Eritrea, and the United States. Five other Americans were reported to have been among the injured. Police said the bomb at the Ethiopian Village restaurant had been placed under an outdoor table where the American victims had been sitting watching soccer on a big-screen television. About 15 of the victims were in the restaurant.
At the rugby club, about four dozen people were among soccer fans gathered in stands watching the soccer match on a large television display.
Known or presumed perpetrator(s): The Somali Islamist militia Al Shabab ("Youth" in Arabic) claimed responsibility, but said the attack did not involve any suicide bombers. (The unexploded bomb that was found was a suicide-vest designed to work if buried.) Shabab threatened further bombings unless Uganda stopped supplying 3,200 troops to the 6,000-strong African Union peace-keeping force (along with Burundi) to protect the recognized government from attacks by Shabab, which in 2010 was the most powerful rebel Islamist militia in the country. (Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he would not accede to Shabab's demand.)
The Associated Press quoted a Shabab commander, Sheik Yusuf Sheik Issa, as saying in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia: "Uganda is one of our enemies. Whatever makes them cry, makes us happy. May Allah's anger be upon those who are against us." Issa did not confirm Shabab's involvement.
"The act of bombing Uganda is a confirmation of the need to take control and pacify Somalia. This is an effort that everybody in the world has to realize," said Uganda's army spokesman Felix Kulayigye - who is adamant that despite the deaths in Kampala, Uganda's 3,200 troops should stay in Somalia.
Two days before the bombings, another Shabab commander, Sheik Muktar Robow, had called for militants to bomb targets in Uganda and Burundi in retaliation for their contributions to the AU forces.
One suspect in the attacks was Fazul Muhammad of Comoros, an archipelago off the East African coast. Muhammad is believed to be an agent of Al Qaeda and was wanted for alleged involvement in two other East African bombings -- of the American embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, and a hotel catering to Israeli tourists in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2002.
In the days following the explosions, police in Uganda arrested 20 suspects who included Ugandans and Somalis. Ugandan police were aided by more than 60 American FBI agents. Authorities said some of those arrested were caught as they tried to leave Uganda, or near the borders with Sudan and Rwanda. Uganda does not share a border with Somalia.
Context: Although the attacks in Kampala were the first known instance of Shabab striking a target outside Somalia, the group had previously threatened to do so.
At the time of the bombings in Uganda, Al Shabab was the largest Islamist group in Somalia threatening the recognized government. It occupied large parts of Somalia, as well as parts of the capital, and had imposed a strict form of Islamist fundamentalism, including a ban on alcohol and on watching soccer on television.
Shabab has also been active in the United States. In what law enforcement officials describe as the largest instance of jihadist recruiting in the United States by a group affiliated with Al Qaeda, more than 20 young Somali immigrants living in Minneapolis returned to Somalia in the period 2007-2009 to fight for the fundamentalist militia, which is listed as a terrorist group. Evidence as of July 2009 was that all the recruits left the United States for Somalia, where some have died, including the first known American suicide bomber. News accounts have quoted FBI sources as expressing concern that the system of Shabab recruitment, seemingly concentrated in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, could also result in a domestic cell of terrorists awaiting instructions from Al Qaeda, although no evidence of such a cell had been uncovered as of July 2010.
The bombings preceded a scheduled summit of the African Union (AU) in Kampala, when over 50 heads of state were expected. The AU in 2007 sponsored the peace-keeping force stationed in Somalia to protect the recognized transitional government in a country that has not had a stable government since the early 1990s.
Uganda is a member of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a group of six East African countries created in 1996 to promote economic growth. Besides Uganda it includes Djibouti, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya, as well as Somalia. After the bombings in Kampala, several members said they wanted to increase the number of peace-keeping troops in Somalia to 20,000, and to include a contingent under the flag of the United Nations.
In the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said after the bombings that there was a "common recognition that this is a new phase for Al Shabab in terms of expanding their geographic reach."
An American official quoted anonymously in news reports from Washington said Shabab was on America's "radar screen" as having ties to Al Qaeda in East Africa and to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years several regional branches, or franchises, of Al Qaeda have emerged including one that purports to cover several countries of East Africa -- Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti. Analysts have said there is a clear distinction between locally-based groups in the region that pursue separate nationalist or ethnic goals, and Al Qaeda.