Kampala, Uganda – Ugandan authorities recovered the bodies of 41 people, including 38 students, who were burned, shot or hacked to death after suspected rebels attacked a high school near the border with Congo, the mayor said Saturday local
At least six people were kidnapped by the rebels, who fled across the porous border into Congo after Friday night’s attack, according to the Ugandan military.
The victims included the students, a 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 rebels set fire to a dormitory and others were shot or hacked with machetes.
The attack, which took place at around 11:30 p.m., involved about five attackers, the Ugandan military said. Soldiers from a nearby brigade who responded to the attack found the school on fire, “with corpses of students lying on the grounds,” said military spokesman Brig. Felix Kulayigye said in a statement.
In this statement, 47 bodies were cited, with eight more people injured and being treated at a local hospital. Ugandan troops are “pursuing the perpetrators to rescue the kidnapped students” who were forced to carry looted food into Congo’s Virunga National Park, he said.
Ugandan authorities said the Allied Democratic Forces, an extremist group that has for years launched attacks from its bases in volatile eastern Congo, carried out the attack at Lhubiriha High School in the border town of Mpondwe. The privately owned, co-educational school is located in the Ugandan district of Kasese, about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Congolese border.
Joe Walusimbi, an official representing Uganda’s president in Kasese, told the AP by phone that some of the victims “were burned beyond recognition.”
Winnie Kiiza, an influential political leader and former MP from the region, condemned the “cowardly attack” on Twitter. He said that “attacks on schools are unacceptable and are a serious violation of children’s rights,” adding that schools should always be “a safe place for all students.”
I strongly condemn the cowardly attack on our students. Attacks on schools are unacceptable and are a serious violation of children’s rights. Schools should always be a safe place for all students, where students can learn, play and grow to reach their full potential.
— Winnie Kiiza (@WinnieKiiza) June 17, 2023
The ADF has been accused of launching many attacks in recent years against civilians in remote parts of eastern Congo. The dark group rarely claims responsibility for attacks.
The ADF has long opposed the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a US security ally who has held power in the East African country since 1986.
The group was established in the early 1990s by some Ugandan Muslims, who said they had been marginalized by Museveni’s policies. At the time, the rebels carried out deadly attacks on Ugandan towns and the capital, including a 1998 attack in which 80 students were massacred in a town that was not the scene of the latest attack.
A Ugandan military assault forced the ADF into eastern Congo, where many rebel groups can operate because the central government has limited control.
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.
For years, Ugandan authorities 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.
