US warns of threat of attack on Sudan-Uganda flights

The United States has warned that “regional extremists” are planning an attack on flights of Air Uganda between Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and Juba, the capital of southern Sudan.

Air Uganda operates flights between Juba Airport in Sudan and Entebbe Airport in Uganda.

The warning from the United States comes amidst increased scare and tensions following the attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a plane of the US-based Northwest Airlines on Christmas Day as the flight, from Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, was about to land in Detroit in the United States. The US authorities believe that the Nigerian, the 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was trained by the terrorist outfit al Qaeda in Yemen.

The US embassy in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, published the warning on its website of a “potential threat” against commercial aviation between Juba in southern Sudan and Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

The warning on the website continued to say that the United States embassy in Khartoum has received information that indicates “a desire by regional extremists” to carry out a “deadly attack” aboard Air Uganda planes on the Kampala-Juba route.

The US embassy said though it was not clear if the suspected extremist groups have the capability to mount an attack, it warned air passengers “to be alert.” The embassy, however, did not name the possible attackers, but said that, in the past, some extremist groups have been active in Sudan.

In October 2009, the rebel group named Somali al Shabaab, had threatened to strike at Kampala and Bujumbura in Uganda in retaliation for rocket attacks by peacekeeping forces in which about 30 people died in Mogadishu in Somalia.

The United States government believes that the ‘Somali al Shabaab’ has close links with al Qaeda.

Major Felix Kulayigye, a spokesman of Uganda’s army, told reporters that the army is aware of the extremists’ threat and is taking precautionary measures, adding that Uganda has been a constant target for extremists and the country is “always on alert” and there is no cause for alarm.

Media reports say that security at the airport in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, is slipshod and that the only scanner at the Juba Airport has not been functioning last week and the security check is limited to hand-searches of baggage.

It may be noted that the United States has already enhanced security screenings of air passengers travelling from or through Sudan and 13 other nations after the incident aboard the Northwest Airlines flight on December 25, 2009.

Sudan had hosted Osama bin Laden, the chief al Qaeda, in the 1990s before banishing him. And, Sudan has been on the United States’ list of ‘state sponsors of terrorism’ since 1993.

At the same time, US officials have acknowledged that Sudan has been “cooperative” in sharing intelligence on extremist groups since the September 11, 2001, attacks.