Museveni vows to track down killers of honeymooning couple, safari guide

President Yoweri Museveni vowed on Wednesday to track down those responsible for the death of a safari guide and two foreign tourists who were honeymooning at a national park.

Ugandan authorities, however, accused the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) of killing the couple, a South African and a British national, and their Ugandan guide on Tuesday evening near the Queen Elizabeth National Park.

The ADF, which began as an uprising in Uganda but has been based in the nearby Democratic Republic of Congo since the late 1990s, pledged allegiance to Islamic State four years ago.

After operating primarily in Congo for years, it has stepped up attacks inside Uganda in recent months, including a raid in June on a secondary school that killed more than 40 people.

“It was a cowardly act on the part of the terrorists attacking innocent civilians and tragic for the couple who were newlyweds and visiting Uganda on their honeymoon.

“Of course, these terrorists will pay with their own wretched lives,” Museveni said in a post on the social media site X.

Uganda and Congo launched a joint ground and air operation against the ADF in December 2021 in an effort to eliminate them from eastern Congo.

Uganda said it had succeeded in killing more than 560 fighters and destroyed their camps, but Museveni on Wednesday acknowledged “gaps” in how the security services had dealt with “remnants” of the group that continued to pose a threat.

The Bridgeway Foundation, a U.S.-based think-tank that studies the ADF, noted in a brief analysis that the attack occurred about 20 km (12 miles) from the Congo border, far deeper into Ugandan territory than previous raids.

Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office advised against all but essential travel to Queen Elizabeth National Park.