The United States is one of the biggest source markets in Uganda tourism as well as for the travel and tourism industry in much of East African nations. The US Embassy urged all US citizens currently in Uganda, including tourists visiting this East African nation, to continue to “shelter in place” through the evening hours, even though there are no specific threats known at this time.
The US Embassy in Kampala, Uganda, has caution US citizens on alert for the possibility of retaliatory attacks in Uganda by al-Shabab in response to the US and Ugandan military actions in Somalia last week which killed al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane.
Ugandan authorities have foiled a planned imminent attack by the Somali militant Islamist terror group al-Shabab, the US Embassy in Uganda said Saturday.
In statements on Twitter and its website, the embassy said Ugandan forces had conducted operations against members of the terror group in the capital, Kampala.
Police spokesman Fred Enanga confirmed Ugandan forces had “made arrests” but gave no details of how many people had been detained.
It was not immediately possible to determine the target of the reported attack.
Last week, the U.S. Embassy warned Somalia’s Shabab insurgents may try to exact revenge for a US air strike that killed the militant group’s commander.
As one of the countries that contribute forces to an African Union peacekeeping mission battling the Islamist militant group in Somalia, Uganda has suffered militant attacks in recent years, and al-Shabaab has threatened more.
In 2010, al-Shabab bombed sports bars in Uganda where people were watching the soccer World Cup on television.