Uganda mourns the deaths of at least 41 people, the majority of them students. They were killed during a raid led by jihadists, on the night of June 16 to 17, in a high school located in the west of this East African country. This attack is the worst in many years.
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, after the bloody assault on the high school in Kasese district, near from the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The attackers, who also kidnapped six people, fled towards Virunga National Park, located in Congolese territory. Thirty-nine students were killed in the school, said Sylvester Mapozi, the mayor of Mpondwe-Lhubiriha locality, where the attack took place. They also “killed two people, a man and a woman, which brings the death toll to 41, he added. A previous toll reported 37 dead.
According to the mayor, many of the victims were burned beyond recognition while other students were still missing. Investigators say dormitories were burned down and high school students were stabbed to death during the incident. assault led by ADF, one of the deadliest groups active in eastern DR Congo. A survivor described assailants carrying guns and machetes, setting fire to their dormitory after firing bullets through the windows .
Uganda National Police Spokesman, Fred Enanga said the ADF raided Lhubiriha High School, Mpondwe, near Bwera and also ‘looted’ a food store. “Our forces are pursuing the enemy to rescue abductees and destroy this group,” he said in a statement.
It is the deadliest attack in Uganda since the twin bombings in Kampala in 2010 that left 76 dead in a raid claimed by the Islamist group Shebab based in Somalia. According to a police report seen by the AFP, police and military units were alerted to a “big attack” at Lhubiriha high school in Mpondwe at around 11:00 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Friday evening. Upon arrival, they found “the school burning and dead bodies of ‘students lying in the compound,’ according to the report. The school is less than two kilometers from the border with DR Congo, where the ADF has been accused of killing thousands of civilians since the 1990s.
