1 dead, 2 wounded in Uganda after scrap bomb explodes

By Godfrey Olukya

KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) - One person was killed and two others critically injured after a scrap bomb exploded in Uganda, authorities said on Thursday.

"An explosion has killed one person. The deceased has been identified as Alfred Mandela, 24, a scrap dealer in Kapeeka town," said local police spokesman Isah Semwogerere on the incident that took place in the Kapeeka trading center of the Nakaseke district.

Semwogerere noted that police were investigating where the explosive had come from.

A local polce chief said the blast took place after the victim unknowingly picked up the bomb from a heap of scrap metal and began crushing it with a hammer, adding that it was still unclear where he had acquired the materials.

Eyewitness Haruna Mbidde said that although he was a distance away from the incident, he had earlier seen the victim holding an object that resembled an old rusty rocket-propelled grenade.

Police identified the injured as Anthony Asiimwe and Nelson Tukwasibwe. Both were admitted to the local hospital in Nakaseke.

The victim was the fifth person to die from a bomb explosion in less than a month in the country, after one person died in an explosion in a restaurant on the outskirts of the capital Kampala, another in a bus explosion, and two children in the village of Segalye village in Nakaseke when a bomb they were playing with went off.

According to the villagers, many explosives had left behind in bushes during the guerilla war of 1981-1986 in the country which brought the current government to power.