Uganda drops terror charges against 2 Somali women

By Halima Athumani
Tuesday, January 20, 2015

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KAMPALA – Ugandan authorities on Monday dropped terror charges against two Somali women.

"The Director of Public Prosecutions has lost interest in prosecuting the two," Edward Muhumuza, a state attorney, told reporters.

He presented an official letter dated Jan. 15 to Magistrate Pamela Acaye to withdraw the case against the two women, with no specific reason given.

Hodan Ahmed Dahir, 23, and Yasmin Abdullahi Aden, 20, were arrested in September of 2014 from Kisenyi, a Kampala suburb, together with 17 others.

Police detained the suspects after alleged intelligence reports that they were plotting to attack Kampala shopping malls.

The Ugandan prosecution then brought charges of aiding terrorists, abetting terrorism and belonging to the terrorist groups Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda against ten of the suspects, including Dahir and Aden.

Magistrate Acaye has discharged the duo and remanded the remaining eight males in custody.

Ugandan, like Kenya, faces terror threats from Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab over the deployment of peacekeeping troops to Somalia.

Somalia has remained in the grip of on-again, off-again violence since the outbreak of civil war in 1991.

Last year, fractious Somalia appeared to inch closer to stability after government troops and African Union forces – deployed in the country since 2007 – drove Al-Shabaab from most of its strongholds.

The militant group, however, has continued to mount attacks against government forces and African peacekeepers.

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