Kampala, Uganda

An ambush in Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park resulted in the deaths of three people, including a British tourist. The attack, described as "cowardly," occurred as the victims were touring the park in southwestern Uganda. The victims, one of whom was a British holidaymaker yet to be identified, were travelling in a vehicle alongside a South African tourist and their Ugandan driver, identified as Eric Alyai, reported the Independent.

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The attack took place in the early Tuesday evening (Oct 17) as the group's vehicle was ambushed. The vehicle was subsequently found engulfed in flames within the national park. Uganda's police shared a photo of the burning four-wheel-drive vehicle on social media platform X. 

The Ugandan police have said they will aggressively pursue the assailants, who are believed to be linked to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamic rebel group with ties to ISIS.

The ADF was initially formed in Uganda but has been based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since the late 1990s. In mid-2019, the group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Over the past decade, the ADF has been accused of perpetrating numerous raids and killing thousands of villagers.

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Efforts to combat the ADF

The police did not specify the precise location of the attack, but Queen Elizabeth National Park's western boundary extends to the shores of Lake Edward, which serves as the border between Uganda and the DRC.

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Bashir Hangi, a spokesperson for the Uganda Wildlife Authority, told the Independent that the attack took place on a Tuesday evening. The victims included one individual from South Africa and another from the United Kingdom.

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In response to the incident, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office updated its travel advice for Uganda, advising against "all but essential travel" to Queen Elizabeth National Park. Their statement on the website further urged individuals in the park to follow local security authorities' guidance and consider leaving the area if they could do so safely.

Just one week before this incident, ADF fighters ambushed a truck in western Uganda, resulting in the death of at least one individual and injuries to another. President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda announced that a senior ADF commander, Meddie Nkalubo, believed to be behind suicide bombings in Kampala in 2021, was killed in an airstrike in September.

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