Ugandan president warns Somali militia over threats of terror attack

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Friday warned Somali militias who have threatened attacks on Uganda's capital Kampala and Burundi's capital Bujumbura.

Museveni told reporters here that should the militias dare attack Kampala, they will be attacked wherever they may be hiding.

"Those terrorists I would advise them to concentrate on solving their problems. If they try to attack Uganda then they will pay because we know how to attack those who attack us and they are not in heaven," he said.

Somali hardline Al Shabaab insurgents on Thursday were reported to have threatened to launch assaults on the capitals of the two East African countries to avenge what they called an indiscriminate attack in Mogadishu by the African Union peacekeepers.

The Thursday attack which is reported to have been sparked off by the insurgents' mortar attack at the airport where Somali President Sheik Sherif Sheik Ahmed was about to board a plane to an AU Summit in Uganda, left over 20 people dead and 65 injured.

Museveni said that the insurgents should instead give time to the transitional government there to fix a timetable for elections instead of causing trouble. "If they want to get power then they can get power by people voting for them. But to say that they will use guns to kill Somalis and then also threaten us, they are backing the wrong horse, they will get the punishment they are looking for," he said.

The insurgents' threats came barely three weeks after the Ugandan military arrested a Somali minister in Kampala following a tip off that a Somali insurgent had entered the country. The minister was released after a night of questioning.

Source: Xinhua