MBALE, UGANDA: The joint security rapid response unit has recovered an abandoned unexploded explosive in Mbale City, a development that left business in the area paralysed.
The explosive was discovered by residents at Malukhu Housing Estate, Sironko Cell in Industrial Division, Monday evening, September 19, 2022.
Area residents found the ‘strange looking item’ from the scrap collection site before alerting the Police.
“We put it in a green polythene bag (Kaveera) by the roadside then our neighbours rushed to tip officers attached to Mbale bus park police post,” Alex Kutosi, a resident recounted.
Police and UPDF teamed up and rushed to the scene and subsequently fenced off the area so that the mass-killing device was retrieved.
The shocked residents suspect that the battlefield weapon might have been planted by unknown people with ill intentions.
“It was placed on the heap of the scrap within this densely populated residential place probably with a motive,” Kutosi worried.
Meanwhile, the security lauded the residents’ security vigilance before calling for calm as they handle the situation.
The dangerous explosive device, which is a monopoly of the army, was given to the sisters’ security agency UPDF 3rd Division Bugema Barracks for further assessment, according to Major Isaac Oware, the 3rd Division Army Spokesperson.
“We have safely recovered unexploded ordinance (UXO), type 60mm mortar bomb without a pin,” Oware said.
The 3rd Division Army Spokesperson continued: “The UXO was taken to the military police barracks for safe custody.”
Furthermore, the UPDF Major revealed that Simon Pter Wakooba, the owner of the scrap where the bomb was found had been summoned by Mbale city police to aid the investigations.
In the recent past, Police have recovered several explosive devices throughout the country that have even claimed innocent lives, with the latest incident being the fifth abandoned bomb to be recovered in the last ten years.
In July 2020, Police recovered another abandoned bomb in Bugema A village, Bukasakya sub-county in the same district, while In 2018, security authorities recovered an abandoned grenade near Petrol Uganda in Bussajjawakubba ward, Nakaloke Town Council, along Mbale-Kumi road.
Before that, two bombs were found unattended at a popular bar in the same city, an incident that caused public scare, particularly among the revellers, in 2011.
Still on recent similar incidences, in 2013, residents landed on another bomb at Namatala suburb, Industrial Division in Mbale municipality the present day Mbale city.
The latest bomb incident has caused tension in the eastern city and by press time, the concerned residents were still plagued with fear and anguish.
It is worth noting that Malukhu estate is where the bomb is of significance in the ruling NRM Party history as it was where President Yoweri Museveni hid when Milton Obote’s regime soldiers almost captured him as he rebelled for freedom.
***NewVision***
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