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Uganda’s Entebbe Airport Could Lose International Airlines

Uganda’s Entebbe Airport Could Lose International Airlines

Uganda’s Entebbe Airport, which the U.S. embassy said last week was at a high threat of a terrorist attack, is likely to lose international airlines due to its lax security and lack of globally accepted explosive detecting equipment, the police have said.

Lodovick Awita, the Aviation police commandant, was quoted by The Observer saying last month that major airlines such as British Airways may soon avoid Uganda if its only international airport at Entebbe does not meet stringent security standards that come into force this month.

“These days terrorists have liquid explosives, and we don’t have capacity to detect them,” Awita said at the Police Training School in Masindi.

He told The Observer that the European Union (EU) had set standards and that all member countries must have specific hi-tech gadgets capable of detecting dangerous items in both solid and liquid form. Uganda, he said, does not have such equipment.

“We only work on assumptions. When we become suspicious, we check the passengers and yet the technology is there,” Awita said.

“Today in America, the walk-through machines can x-ray you up to your bones. The technology is there. We can acquire it. In some places here, the scanners and walk-through machines are not working; you can pass through them with a pistol,” Police chief Kale Kayihura said.

Kayihura further said Entebbe airport lacked adequate lighting and a strong perimeter fence to keep away intruders.