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Three suicide bombers in the heart of Uganda’s capital killed at least three civilians and sent parliamentarians rushing for cover as nearby cars burst into flames, witnesses and police said, the latest in a string of bombings over the past month.

At least 33 people were being treated at Mulago Hospital, including five people in critical condition, police spokesperson Fred Enanga said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The al Qaeda-linked Somali insurgent group al Shabaab has carried out deadly attacks in Uganda. Last month another group, the Islamic State-aligned Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), claimed its first attack in Uganda.

“Our intelligence also indicates that these are domestic terror groups that are linked to ADF,” said Enanga.

The explosions – the first near the central police station and the second very close to parliament – sent bloodied office workers scrambling for cover over shards of broken glass as a plume of white smoke rose above the downtown area.

A single suicide bomber carried out the first blast near the checkpoint at the police station, which killed two people, Enanga said. Then two suicide bombers on motorbikes detonated, killing one other person.

“A booming sound like that from a big gun went off. The ground shook, my ears nearly went deaf,” Peter Olupot, a 28-year-old bank guard who was near the attack near parliament, told Reuters.

“I saw a vehicle on fire and everyone was running and panicking. I saw a boda boda (motorcycle) man – his head was smashed and covered in blood.”

A Reuters journalist saw burned cars behind a police cordon at the scene and a reporter with local television station NTV Uganda said he saw two bodies in the street.

Irene Nakasiita, spokesperson at the Uganda Red Cross, said they would release information about the blasts later.

Ugandan soldiers are fighting al Shabaab in Somalia as part of an UN-backed African Union peacekeeping force. Al Shabaab’s bombings in Uganda include a 2010 attack that killed 70 people watching the World Cup.

Last month, the ADF made its first claim of responsibility for a blast in Uganda with a bomb – packed with shrapnel – that killed a waitress at a restaurant.

Also last month, Ugandan police said a suicide bomber had blown up a bus, killing himself and injuring others. His affiliation was unclear.

The ADF was originally established by Ugandan Muslims but now have their main bases in the forested mountains of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which borders Uganda.

Both the ADF and al Shabaab frequently use explosive devices and have been accused of killing thousands of civilians.

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Tunisian employment minister, Nassreddine Nsibi, said on Monday that the government is committed to implementing any deals it reaches with the country’s powerful UGTT union, such as on the minimum wage – even as the country faces a financial crisis.

Tunisia last week resumed talks with the International Monetary Fund on a loan package predicated on Tunis imposing painful and unpopular steps aimed at liberalising the economy.

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Democratic Republic of Congo’s prime minister on Monday proposed government spending of 20.73 trillion Congolese francs ($9.94 billion dollars) in 2022, a 41.8% increase over this year’s budget.

Prime Minister Sama Lukonde Kyenge told parliament the increase would be made possible by strong economic growth, improved revenue collection and higher donor funding.

Despite the continuing impact of COVID-19, Congo’s public finances have improved significantly this year due to high production of chief exports copper and cobalt, lending from donors and government efforts to boost tax collection.

By the end of August, foreign exchange reserves reached $3.3billion, or 13.5 weeks of imports, up from $710.3 million when Lukonde’s government was sworn in in April. By the end of October Congo had already exceeded forecast revenues for the whole of 2021.

“This performance allows us to hope that with greater effort mobilizing revenues… the country can reach even higher budgets, fulfilling its potential,” Lukonde said.

He said the government would further increase tax revenues by digitising customs and other tax reporting, identifying mining companies no longer entitled to certain tax breaks, and expanding the tax base from telecommunications services.

Previous Congolese governments have struggled to live up to promises to meaningfully expand public revenues and typically end up spending only about half of what their budgets call for.

The current government has benefited from extensive donor assistance, including from the International Monetary Fund, which resumed lending to Congo in 2019 seven years after the IMF suspended its last lending programme.

In July, the IMF agreed a three-year, $1.52 billion extended credit facility with President Felix Tshisekedi’s government to support economic reforms and pandemic recovery.

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