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Somali Islamist militants claim responsibility for worst attack in east
Africa since US embassy bombings in 1998 * Xan Rice in Kampala
* guardian.co.uk, Monday 12 July 2010 22.12 BST For young, middle-class football fans in the Ugandan capital there was
no better place to watch the World Cup final. A giant screen had been
erected beside the clubhouse of the Kyadondo rugby club. Hundreds of
white plastic chairs were neatly arranged on the grass in front. The
beer flowed freely -- for a $2 entrance fee you got two free bottles of
Guinness.
Jovan Ssebaggala, 21, and his elder brother Joel, a government land
valuer, arrived early to secure front seats. Fireworks marked the start
of the game; then the vuvuzelas took over. At half-time, a few miles across town, a deadly explosion carried out by
Somali Islamist militants ripped through an Ethiopian restaurant. But
the news never reached the fans at the rugby club. Then, with three minutes of normal time remaining in the game, and as
the two brothers urged Spain on against Holland, there was a loud blast.
Jovan thought "fireworks" but instinctively jumped out of his seat
towards the screen. "I looked up to the sky but there were no lights. Then I turned around
and saw people lying on the ground," he said. Perhaps five seconds later there was another blast. Jovan desperately
looked for Joel, but there were so many bodies lying around. A woman
whose head had been blown off remained in her chair. A dead man with a
blood-soaked football shirt still clutched his beer. Jovan prayed that
his brother had escaped unhurt, like he had, and made his way home. When he next saw Joel it was on the front page of the New Vision
newspaper in the morning. Joel was lying on his back, with his hand on
his stomach. He was dead. At least 74 people were killed in the twin bombings in Kampala on Sunday
night, most of them at the rugby club. The Somali Islamist movement
al-Shabaab today took responsibility for the bombings. The militants, who claim links with al-Qaida and are trying to overthrow
Somalia's government, have repeatedly threatened to attack Uganda as
punishment for it leading the African Union peacekeeping mission
(Amisom) in Mogadishu. Uganda is also hosting a training camp for Somali
government soldiers. "We thank the mujahideens that carried out the attack," Sheikh Ali
Mohamud Rage, al-Shabaab's spokesman, told reporters in the Somali
capital. "We are sending a message to Uganda and Burundi, if they do not
take out their Amisom troops from Somalia, blasts will continue and it
will happen in Bujumbura [Burundi's capital] too." Al-Shabaab also loathes Ethiopia, which sent troops into Somalia in 2006
to oust a broad-based Islamist coalition that has taken control of much
of the country. Sunday's attack was the worst in east Africa since the US embassy
bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which brought al-Qaida into
public consciousness for the first time. It is also the first time
al-Shabaab, which has little support among ordinary Somalis but is a
powerful fighting force, has struck beyond the country's border,
confirming its emergence as an international terror organisation. The bombings drew worldwide condemnation. South Africa, which hosted the
World Cup, described it as a "barbaric act of terrorism". Barack Obama,
and the British foreign secretary, William Hague, said the attackers
were cowardly. The US, which has supplied Somalia's embattled government
with weapons to fight al-Shabaab and other Islamist rebels, said it
would assist Uganda to catch the perpetrators. One American was killed
in the attack, with Ethiopian, Congolese and Indians nationals also
among the dead or injured. FBI agents sifted through the debris at the rugby club today. Reports
indicated that the severed head of what appeared to be a Somali suicide
bomber had been found. About 20 minutes' drive away, in the upmarket Kabalagala suburb, a
policeman clutching an AK-47 sat on top of a lion statue at the gates to
the Ethiopian Village restaurant. Passersby peered over the fence at the
destroyed bar area, littered with glass, upturned furniture, a sandal
and a black shoe. At least 15 people were killed here. Markos Getnet, a 43-year-old Ethiopian businessman who visits the bar
most weekends, said he was shocked. "You don't expect this sort of thing in Uganda," he said. But local intelligence officials would have been less surprised. A few
months ago the government distributed posters in Kampala, which has a
large Somali community, warning people to be aware that a terrorist
attack might take place. Many Ugandans are now questioning whether the
peacekeeping mission in Somalia is worth it, especially as Uganda has no
strategic interest in the country. "Our government went to an outside war and we are targeted because of
that," said Osama Ssemakula, whose brother-in-law was killed in the
rugby club attack, as he waited to identify the body at the Mulago
hospital. "We the innocent people are dying while those in government
who are sending our troops to Somalia are safe." But others at the hospital who crowded around the tree where lists of
the dead and injured had been tacked were simply trying to come to terms
with the loss. Augustine Luwembo said his son Nicholas, 26, had decided to watch the
game at the rugby club with friends. "At midnight I heard there was a
bomb blast. I tried to phone Nicholas, but he did not answer," Luwembo
said. At 2am his phone rang. The caller was not Nicholas, but a
policeman who had found his mobile. "He said to me: 'The owner of this
phone is dead.' "
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