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The Ugandan authorities announced on Thursday that they plan to request the extradition of six Islamist extremists believed to be detained in Mozambique.
The announcement came two days after Mozambican police said they had arrested three Ugandans, claiming they were influential figures of a radical Islamist organization behind attacks in the province. Cabo Delgado, rich in natural gas.
Three others were already in custody, said Ugandan police spokesman Fred Enanga.
"We are working with the Mozambican government and we understand that they have arrested a number of suspects," Enanga said.
Through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kampala expressed "an interest in six of them" who would be brought in again to face charges in their country, he said.
Uganda has no extradition treaty with Mozambique.
One of the suspects was Abdul Rahman Faisal, who said that he had nothing to do with the attacks of Cabo Delgado, but that it belonged to "Al-Shabaab in Uganda" – apparently making reference to the Somali Islamist militant group that has no known connection to the current uprising in Mozambique.
But he claimed that he had nothing to do with the attacks of Cabo Delgado.
Enanga said Al Shabaab had no cells in Uganda but said Faisal and several others were wanted by Ugandan police in connection with an extremist mosque in central Kampala that was attacked by police in April 2018. .
During the raid, the police found weapons and more than 100 women were detained against their will, as well as children who were "recruited and radicalized to commit acts of extremism".
"Some people have managed to escape the raid and some of them are among the suspects arrested in Mozambique," Enanga told AFP.
"Abdul Rahman was one of those suspects."
In addition, Hbadan Kiberu, a local council official in Kampala, described Faisal as the head of the Usafi Mosque, a dilapidated collection of dilapidated buildings located in the center of the city.
Described as a "center of radicalization", the mosque was home to "extremists," police said in AFP.
Uganda has taken a hard line against suspected Islamist extremists since a series of deadly suicide bombings perpetrated in 2010 that targeted football fans watching the World Cup final in Kampala.
The Somali group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for these attacks.
According to the International Crisis Group, Shabaab has struggled to establish in Uganda, unlike neighboring countries.
However, the group warned in a report last year that disaffected youth could turn to activism if Ugandan security forces continue to "mistreat Muslims".
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