IN SHORT: Following a thwarted bombing in Kampala in June 2025, a video seemingly showing the attack in the city is doing the rounds on social media. However, the footage is actually from a bombing incident in November 2021, and the claim is false.
A video has been posted on TikTok with the caption: “Happening now. Another bom in Kampala.”
Kampala is the capital city of Uganda.
It begins with a chaotic scene of some cars parked on the side of a street engulfed in flames, with loud car alarms blaring in the background.
The camera then pans to two men nearby who seem dissatisfied with the police response. A uniformed police officer walks over and asks them what they expect the police to do. One of the men replies that the police should have arrived with a fire extinguisher.
The camera pans back to the burning cars, and a small explosion from the burning cars is seen. The video then cuts to a higher vantage point, offering a wide view of the city. A large plume of smoke rises into the sky and the Kooki Towers building is visible in the background, helping to identify the location. Car horns can be heard in the distance as the camera moves across the skyline. The last part of the video was likely filmed from inside a nearby tall building.
The post has over 518,000 views, more than 15,000 likes, and over 800 comments.
The context
Uganda has experienced periodic terrorist threats in recent years. Between late October and November 2021, the Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) carried out a series of coordinated suicide bombings. These included a major attack on 16 November that targeted areas near the central police station and Uganda’s parliament.
The 16 November blasts killed three civilians and three attackers, injured many others, and destroyed multiple vehicles outside key government buildings.
More recently, on 3 June 2025, Ugandan security forces foiled a suspected suicide bombing at the Munyonyo Martyrs’ Shrine in Kampala’s southern suburbs. Two suspected ADF members, including a female suicide bomber, were intercepted and killed by police, causing an explosion that killed only the suspects. No civilians were injured, and authorities again linked the foiled plot to the ADF.
The TikTok video began circulating on 15 June, nearly two weeks after the attempted Munyonyo attack. It claims to show another bombing. But is that true? We checked.
Video is from the 2021 bombing incident
A reverse image search of keyframes from the video led us to footage of the November 2021 bombing in Kampala. The videos match the circulating clip and were uploaded to YouTube on the same day as the attack.
The burning cars can be seen parked outside the Jubilee Insurance Centre on Parliament Avenue, which was one of the locations hit during the incident near Uganda’s parliament.
There are no credible reports of any bombing in Kampala around 15 June 2025, the date the TikTok video began circulating. The only reported incident was the foiled attack on 3 June, which did not result in any civilian injuries and was contained before reaching the public.
The claim that this video shows a recent bombing in Kampala is false. It uses footage from the 2021 attacks, misleadingly presented with a false caption to suggest a recent event.
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