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Daesh-linked terrorist slaughter 41 in attack on Uganda school

Saturday, 17 June 2023 11:14 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 17 June 2023 11:14 AM ]

At least 41 have been killed in a suspected rebel attack on a Ugandan school. (Photo by AP)

Daesh-linked militants have slaughtered 41 people and abducted others in an attack on a school in western Uganda near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities said.

Ugandan authorities have found the bodies of 41 people, including 38 students, after Daesh-affiliated rebels attacked a secondary school near the border with Congo, Uganda's local mayor declared on Saturday.

The victims included students, a security guard and two members of the local community who were killed outside the school, Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Mayor Selevest Mapoze said, noting that an unknown number of people were also kidnapped by the rebels, who fled across the porous border into Congo after the attack on Friday night.

The co-ed and privately owned school is located in the Ugandan district of Kasese, nearly two kilometers from the Congo border, local officials added.

"Our forces are pursuing the enemy to rescue the abductees and destroy this group," defense ministry spokesman Felix Kulayigye said in a Twitter post as cited in press reports.

Officials did not say how many people were abducted by the assailants, members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) insurgent group that has pledged allegiance to the Daesh (ISIS) terror group.

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Joe Walusimbi, an official representing Uganda's president in Kasese, said that some of the victims "were burnt beyond recognition."

"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, adding that eight others were in critical condition.

The attackers fled to Virunga National Park in Congo, police added.

Influential political leader and a former lawmaker from the region, Winnie Kiiza, condemned the "cowardly attack" on Twitter, insisting that "attacks on schools are unacceptable and are a grave violation of children's rights."

ADF rebels began their insurgency against President Yoweri Museveni in the 1990s from a base in the Rwenzori Mountains.

The group was largely defeated by the Ugandan army, but remnants fled across the border into the vast forests of eastern Congo, where they continued their insurgency—carrying out attacks on civilian and military targets in Congo and Uganda.

In April, ADF forces attacked a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 20 people.

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