Ugandan Authorities Hunt, Kill ‘Herbalist’ Who Attacked Military Bases
Late Tuesday, Ugandan authorities said that security forces had killed a “traditional herbalist” who allegedly orchestrated a concerted attack on police and military sites over the weekend.
The attack began on Saturday and targeted three districts in Uganda’s remote western areas bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the army.
Insurgents armed with submachine guns and machetes attacked police and military installations in Bundibugyo, Kasese, and Fort Portal areas, killing at least one civilian and one soldier.
An army spokesman in Bundibugyo told AFP that the gang was attempting to “acquire weapons to start a tribal militia,” but had been beaten back by security troops.
The attack was led by a “traditional herbalist” named Christian Asuman Muganzi, according to Albert Kaliruga, the region’s deputy head of security.
On Tuesday, he was cornered in his hideout in Kakuka, Bundibugyo, and killed along with “over 20” of his fighters, Kaliruga told AFP, while 15 others were apprehended.
“He was using his shrine at Kakuka to indoctrinate and recruit people to join his criminal group,” Kaliruga said.
“At his shrine, we recovered traditional herbs, fetishes and other items he has been using to indoctrinate his recruits and apparently to protect them during battles,” he added.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Uganda had a savage insurgency led by cultish militant Joseph Kony.
There are constant dangers along its western border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a distant and dangerous territory populated by numerous militias, including an Islamic State offshoot.
Ugandan Authorities Hunt, Kill ‘Herbalist’ Who Attacked Military Bases
