Unknown gunmen fired on Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s motorcade in a weekend attack in the country’s restive north-east, but no one was hurt, officials said on Monday.
The attack, which appeared to be an act of banditry and not an assassination attempt, occurred late on Saturday in the Moroto district in Uganda’s Karamoja region while Museveni was campaigning for February 23 elections, they said.
”They fired bullets that we believe were from a machine gun and small rifles … at an advance armored vehicle that forms part of the presidential convoy,” said Lieutenant Edison Kwesiga, spokesperson for Uganda’s Presidential Guard Brigade.
”The vehicle that was targeted was not damaged,” he said in a statement. ”Our firepower overwhelmed the enemy, who took off in disarray.”
Museveni’s spokesperson, Onnapito Ekomoloit, said the attack took place between 9.30pm and 10pm local time while the president was returning to a state guest house from a campaign rally.
”It was a small incident. The escorts fired warning shots and it seems like the attackers didn’t know whose convoy they were attacking,” he said.
”They might have mistaken it for the usual traffic that they intermittently attack on the road,” Ekomoloit said. ”The president is safe, he was not injured … He will continue to campaign in the region.”
Karamoja is rife with illegal weapons and is known for instability, banditry and tribal clashes between nomadic pastoralists over cattle, water and pasture.
Kwesiga said an investigation is under way to determine the identities of the gunmen who carried out the attack, which he maintained was unusual for Karamoja bandits.
”This attack on the convoy is not typical of the Karamoja because it is not known of them to attack long convoys,” he said, adding that the weapons used are not normally associated with highway brigands in the region.
However, other officials noted that a wide array of weapons is available in the area and that the attackers would not have been able to judge the full size of the convoy because they fired only at a lead vehicle in the dark. — Sapa-AFP