38 students, 3 adults burnt, shot, or hacked to death in Uganda school attack

Terrorists from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an extremist group fighting against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni rule since the 1090s, raided a private school near the Congo border, leaving 41 people, including 38 students, dead and many injured.

Ugandan authorities recovered the bodies of those who were burned, shot, or hacked to death after suspected rebels attacked a secondary school near the border with Congo, the local mayor said on Saturday.

At least six people were abducted by the rebels, who fled across the porous border into Congo after the raid on Friday (June 16) night, according to the Ugandan military.

The victims included the students, one guard, and two members of the local community who were killed outside the school, Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Mayor Selevest Mapoze told the Associated Press.

Mapoze said some of the students suffered fatal burns when the rebels set fire to a dormitory and others were shot or hacked with machetes.

The raid, which happened around 11.30 pm, involved about five attackers, the Ugandan military said.

“Soldiers from a nearby brigade who responded to the attack found the school on fire, with dead bodies of students lying in the compound,” military spokesman Brig. Felix Kulayigye said in a statement. Eight other people wounded in the attack were being treated at a local hospital, the statement said.

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Ugandan troops are pursuing the perpetrators to rescue the abducted students who were forced to carry looted food toward Congos Virunga National Park, it said. Ugandan authorities said that the ADF, an extremist group that has been launching attacks for years from its bases in volatile eastern Congo, carried out the raid on Lhubiriha Secondary School in the border town of Mpondwe.

The school, co-ed and privately owned, is located in the Ugandan district of Kasese, about 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Congo border.

A dormitory was set on fire and a food store looted. So far, 25 bodies have been recovered from the school and transferred to Bwera Hospital, police said in a statement. Joe Walusimbi, an official representing President Museveni in Kasese, told the AP over the phone that some of the victims were burnt beyond recognition.

Winnie Kiiza, an influential political leader and a former lawmaker from the region, condemned the cowardly attack on Twitter. She said, “Attacks on schools are unacceptable and are a grave violation of children’s rights.” Schools should always be “a safe place for every student” she added.

The ADF has been accused of launching many attacks in recent years targeting civilians in remote parts of eastern Congo. The shadowy group rarely claims responsibility for attacks. The ADF has long opposed the rule of President Museveni, a US security ally, who has held power in this East African country since 1986.

The group was established in the early 1990s by some Ugandan Muslims, who said they had been sidelined by Museveni’s policies. At the time, the rebels staged deadly attacks both in Ugandan villages and in the capital, including a 1998 attack in which 80 students were massacred in a town not from the scene of the latest attack.

A Ugandan military assault later forced the ADF into eastern Congo, where many rebel groups are able to operate because the central government has limited control there. The group has since established ties with the Islamic State group.

In March, at least 19 people were killed in Congo by suspected ADF extremists.

Ugandan authorities for years have vowed to track down ADF militants even outside Ugandan territory. In 2021, Uganda launched joint air and artillery strikes in Congo against the group.

(With agency inputs)