Uganda: foreign tourists killed in attack by suspected IS-aligned rebel group

Ugandan police has said they were pursuing suspected members of an an armed group aligned with Islamic State (IS) that reportedly killed three people, including two foreign tourists, in a world-famous Ugandan national park.
The police said on Tuesday (17 October) that it blamed the attack on the notorious militia group known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). The attack happened in the Queen Elizabeth National Park, one of Uganda’s most popular conservation areas. “We have registered a cowardly terrorist attack on two foreign tourists and an Ugandan in Queen Elizabeth National Park,” police spokesperson wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “The three were killed, and their safari vehicle burnt,” he added. The tourists’ nationalities were not immediately known.
Queen Elizabeth shares a border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its famous Virunga National Park, a habitat for rare mountain gorillas, and where armed groups are believed to operate. The ADF, which is considered a terrorist organization by the Ugandan and US governments, was originally formed out of western Uganda, but later expanded across the border into the DRC. Ugandan troops are currently working alongside regional forces in the DRC to hunt down ADF rebels who have been blamed for massacres, kidnappings and looting, with a death toll estimated in the thousands. In June, ADF militia killed 42 people including 37 students in a high school in western Uganda.