Uganda is still vulnerable to terror attacks due to corruption, lack of trust and information sharing among disparate security services, a report by the Bureau of Counter Terrorism of the United States has indicated.
Although the US states that Uganda has strong military capabilities compared to other countries in the region, it adds that the country is still vulnerable to terrorism due to internal weaknesses.
“The vulnerability is at least in part due to porous borders, corruption, a lack of trust and information sharing among disparate security services, diversion of security force capabilities to focus on opposition politicians, an overly militarised approach to combating violent extremism within Uganda, and the security forces’ poor relations with local communities and civil society,” US Department of State report states.
Uganda security agencies have been carrying out several raids and arrests around the country, which they claim to be targeting terror cells linked to Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and Uganda Coalition Front for Change.
According to the police report, there was a drop of terror-related cases from 21 incidents in 2021 to 15 last year. Several police stations were attacked, leading to death of police officers and loss of guns. Security forces recovered 30 of the 38 guns that were stolen. Eleven people were arrested on terror charges last year, according to the police crime report of 2022.
According to the US report, Uganda law enforcement officers have been accused of torturing Muslims they suspect to be having affiliation with ADF, which has created bad relations with the local community and is hindering the fight against terrorism and violent extremism.
In response to the US report, the spokesman of the Defence Ministry and Uganda People’s Defence Forces, Brig Felix Kulayigye, said all countries including the US are vulnerable to terrorism, but Uganda’s security forces are doing all it takes to prevent such attacks.
“I don’t fully agree with the US report on other aspects like our relationship with the people. Our relationship with the people has been strong. The incidents of indiscipline are individual cases but not a policy of the UPDF,” Brig Kulayigye said.
The report indicates that Uganda’s Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) is also unable to detect the funding of terrorism since many smaller financial service companies in the country don’t meet international standards against money laundering and illicit financial transactions.
“Uganda’s few large banks largely comply with international standards for anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), but most smaller banks do not have the capacity or technology to fully comply with international and national standards,” the report indicates.
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The report further states that the reputation of FIA has also been severely dented by their freezing of bank accounts of civil society organisations they accused of receiving funding from the United States.
In November 2020, the FIA froze the bank accounts of Uganda Women’s Network and the Uganda National NGO Forum on allegations that they were involved in terrorism financing.
“The FIA’s reputation remains severely damaged after it froze the accounts of respected NGOs working in the democracy and governance space that receive funding from the United States and other donors for political reasons preceding the January presidential elections,” the report stated.
The FIA later unfroze the accounts of the organisations after it had been dragged to court for acting illegally.
Efforts to get a comment from the FIA’s head Sydney Asubo about US’s government report on his organisation were futile. Mr Asubo’s known mobile phone was switched off.
Issues
According to the police report, there was a drop of terror-related cases from 21 incidents in 2021 to 15 last year. Several police stations were attacked and police officers killed.
The Daily Monitor
