Security agencies say they have stepped up security deployment along major roads and highways within Kasese district a week after two foreign tourists and their Ugandan tour guide were killed in Queen Elizabeth national park.
The dead include a man (British national) and his wife (South African national) who were visiting the national park to enjoy honeymoon. They were being chauffeured by a Ugandan tour guide.
The car was attacked at Nyamunuka along Katwe Road in Kasese district, and burnt to ashes by unknwown assailants.
Police and the Ugandan army have attributed last week’s attack on ADF, a terror group affiliated to ISIS.
On Monday, Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said joint security agencies have stepped up security patrols on highways within the entire district.
“As joint security agencies, we remain extremely saddened that this very tragic incident happened in our country. A country that has been attracting thousands of tourists, both foreign and domestic. We continue to extend condolences for families and loved ones of those killed,” Enganga told reporters.
He said the UPDF’s Mountain Brigade and Uganda Wildlife Authority’s (UWA) force continue to aggressively pursue the suspected terrorists said to have been five in number.
“The safety of tourists continues to be a priority in this country. As a result, we have adjusted and stepped up our patrols along the major roads and highways in Kasese district.”
Days before the murder of the two tourists and a guide, suspected ADF rebels had shot one person dead and burnt a lorry in which three people were traveling. The attack occurred at 1am along the Bwera-Kinyamaseke-Kasese Road in Kasese district.
“This calls for very regular and constant road patrols. From the side of Police, an integrated Highway Patrol Unit has been deployed in the area. Together with other measures that are being carried out by Police and sister security areas in Kasese and neighboring areas,” Enanga said.
He added that security agencies have adjusted deployments at all tourism sites, aimed at guaranteeing peace safety and security.
On Monday, hospitality entrepreneur and tourism advocate, Amos Wekesa, revealed that UWA is set to deploy an additional 800 rangers.
In April 2019, American tourist Kimberly Endicott and her guide Jean-Paul Mirenge were kidnapped by suspected terrorists in Queen Elizabeth national park. The duo was released days later after government of Uganda paid an undisclosed ransom.
Four assailants had stopped the vehicle in which Endicott and Mirenge were driving at dusk and put them on gunpoint. The same vehicle was occupied by an elderly couple who were not hurt. It is this couple that raised the alarm to the lodge where they were staying.
Kasese district is among Uganda’s most vibrant tourism destinations.
Tourists visit Kasese for its several attractions – Mount Rwenzori (the snow-capped mountain that lies on the Equator and has the third highest peak in Africa) and Queen Elizabeth national park, sometimes considered a Medley of Wonders.
Those attracted to wildlife often leave the park in awe. The park offers sprawling savanna, shady, humid forests, sparkling lakes, and fertile wetlands, making it the ideal habitat for classic big game including carnivores like lions, leopards, side stripped jackal and spotted hyena among others.
It also has ten primate species including chimpanzees, and over 600 species of birds.
Set against the backdrop of the jagged Rwenzori Mountains, the park’s magnificent vistas include dozens of enormous craters carved dramatically into rolling green hills, panoramic views of the Kazinga Channel with its banks lined with hippos, buffalo, and elephants, and the endless Ishasha plains, whose fig trees hide lions ready to pounce on herds of unsuspecting Uganda kob.
But in the recent past, the fortunes of this ecosystem have been threatened by the close proximity that Kasese has with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Kasese borders the volatile DRC whose Eastern region has for decades been riddled with several armed militias (including ADF).
In June, ADF raided a school in Kasese and killed over 40 people before setting the school on fire.
There are worries within Uganda’s travel and hospitality industry that the recent incident in Queen Elizabeth could trigger several cancellations from prospective tourists who have been planning to visit Uganda.
This at a time when Uganda’s tourism is beginning to recover from the hit it took due to Covid lockdowns and later Ebola (September last year).
READ MORE: Uganda might be Ebola-free but tourism is yet to heal from the ‘cancellation epidemic’
Prior to the Covid pandemic, Uganda’s annual tourist arrivals stood at 1.5m (in 2019). But this number dropped by more than half, to about half a million in 2020 before picking up to about 814,508 international visitor arrivals in 2022. This represented an increase of 59 percent compared to 2021.
Tourism generated close to Ushs 2.7 trillion last year, representing 12.2 percent of total exports and 41.4 percent of service exports. This is a 44 percent increase from earnings in the previous year but still 47.5 percent below the pre-Covid levels.
Herbert Kigongo, a tour operator who runs guided safaris within Queen Elizabeth told Plugged that tourists – those planning to visit Uganda and those who were already in Uganda when the latest incident in Queen Elizabeth happened – have either postponed their trips or scrapped Queen Elizabeth off their itineraries.
“They (clients) have been saying that perhaps they will have to leave out Queen Elizabeth for now. Until maybe further notice, once the situation has normalized. There are some of my friends (tour operators) who were supposed to be taking clients to Queen Elizabeth, but they skipped it and went to Bwindi instead,” Kigongo said.
Asked what personal precautions he is taking at the moment, Kigongo said; “We now always have a ranger with us before embarking on a game drive. Rangers are armed.”
He says that the morning after the incident, he guided a group of tourists on a game drive in the park, and everything went on normally.
In recent weeks, President Museveni has updated the country on a series of military operations launched against ADF strongholds in the DRC but adding that the rebels are trying to reenter Uganda, owing to the joint operations Uganda and the Congolese army have been mounting against ADF inside DRC.
In the latest Presidential update, he said Ugandan gunships attacked a big ADF camp 60kms from the Ugandan border.
“Meanwhile, the group of 5 people that burnt the lorry, the tourist van and killed the 2 tourists with their driver, is being hunted in the area to the left of Bweera- Kikoroongo Road as you come from Bweera,” the President wrote.
