In Uganda, the unbearable wait for families after the massacre in a high school

June 18, 2023

In a morgue in western Uganda, distraught families await Sunday to be fixed on the fate of their loved ones after the jihadist raid in a high school which caused the horrific deaths of several dozen students.

At least 41 people were killed overnight from Friday to Saturday, mostly students, in the attack, the worst of its kind in the country in years.

The assault targeted Lhubiriha High School in Mpondwe, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). Ugandan army and police officials have blamed members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militia that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

The victims were attacked with machetes, shot and burned alive in this attack which shocked Uganda and drew strong international condemnation.

The attackers fled to Virunga Park in Congolese territory, also abducting six people after their deadly raid, according to the Ugandan army and police who promised to release the hostages.

Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition when the assailants set fire to a locked dormitory in the high school, complicating the identification of the victims.

At a morgue in Bwera, a town near the scene of the attack, families wept as the bodies of their loved ones were put in coffins and taken away for burial.

But many other families still have no news of their missing loved ones.

The remains of many of the victims in the high school fire have been transferred to the town of Fort Portal where DNA testing is to be carried out.

The attack on this school is the deadliest in Uganda since the double attack in Kampala in 2010 which killed 76 people during a raid claimed by the Islamist group Shebab based in Somalia.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the attack “appalling” while Washington, a close ally of Uganda, and the African Union also condemned the bloodshed and offered their condolences.

Seventeen students were burned in their dormitory and 20 female students were stabbed to death, Ugandan First Lady and Education Minister Janet Museveni said.

A security guard and three other people were also killed, officials said.

The army will hunt down “these evil people and they will pay for what they have done”, Ms Museveni said on Saturday.

But questions have been raised about how the attackers managed to elude surveillance in a border region with a heavy military presence.

The school is less than two kilometers from the border with DR Congo, where the ADF has been active and has been accused of killing thousands of civilians since the 1990s.

Major General Dick Olum told AFP on Saturday that intelligence services reported an ADF presence in the area at least two days before the attack, underscoring the need for an investigation.

According to this officer, the attackers had detailed information about the school.

Uganda and DR Congo launched a joint offensive in 2021 to drive the ADF out of their Congolese strongholds, but these operations have so far failed to end the group’s attacks.

In June 1998, 80 students were burned to death in their dormitories in an ADF attack on the Kichwamba Technical Institute near the DR Congo border.

Over 100 students had been abducted.