Ugandan authorities announced on Tuesday that security forces had killed a “traditional herbalist” accused of orchestrating a deadly weekend assault on police and military installations in Uganda western border region.
The coordinated attacks, which began on Saturday, targeted security posts in the Bundibugyo, Kasese, and Fort Portal districts—areas near the frontier with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Armed insurgents wielding submachine guns and machetes killed one civilian and one soldier before being repelled by government troops.
According to an army official in Bundibugyo, the assailants were part of a group attempting to “acquire weapons to start a tribal militia.”
Regional security deputy Albert Kaliruga identified the group’s leader as Christian Asuman Muganzi, described as a “traditional herbalist.”
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He said Muganzi was tracked to his hideout in Kakuka, Bundibugyo, where he was killed along with “over 20” of his followers. Fifteen others were arrested during the operation.
Kaliruga explained that Muganzi had been using his shrine as a recruitment and indoctrination centre. “He was using his shrine at Kakuka to indoctrinate and recruit people to join his criminal group,” he said.
Security operatives reportedly recovered charms, herbs, and ritual items believed to have been used to “protect” recruits in combat.
Uganda has a history of violent uprisings, notably the insurgency led by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in the 1990s and 2000s.
