Terrorists stabbed and burned 37 schoolchildren in Uganda: several children were kidnapped

Militants linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) group stabbed and burned 37 schoolchildren in western Uganda. It was the worst such attack in the country in more than a decade, military and police officials said. Writes about it NDTV.

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The army said it pursued Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) fighters after they raided a secondary school in Mpondwe in the Kasese district, near the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Dormitories were set on fire and schoolchildren were stabbed to death in a brutal overnight attack by the ADF, one of the deadliest groups operating in the DRC's conflict-torn east, investigators said.

“Unfortunately, 37 bodies were found and taken to the mortuary of the Bwera hospital,” Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) spokesman Felix Kulayigye said, referring to the city near where the attack took place.

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He added that eight people were wounded and six more were kidnapped and taken by the attackers towards the Virunga National Park, which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The UPDF has begun pursuit of the criminals to rescue the kidnapped schoolchildren,” he assured.

Kasese Resident Commissioner Joe Walusimbi reported that at least 25 of the victims "were students at the school".

It is the deadliest attack in Uganda since two bombings in Kampala in 2010 that killed 76 people. Al-Shabaab, a Somali-based group, claimed responsibility for them.

"Big Attack"

Police and military units were alerted to a "big attack" at Lubiriha High School in Mpondwe around 23:00 p.m. Friday, June 16, in the evening, according to a law enforcement report.

“Upon their arrival, the school was in flames, the corpses of students lay in the surrounding area, and the school food warehouse had been broken into,” the report said.

The school is less than two kilometers (1,2 miles) from the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the ADF is primarily active, accused of killing thousands of civilians since the 1990s.

Maj. Gen. Dick Olum reported that intelligence had suggested an ADF presence in the area at least two days prior to the attack, and an investigation was needed to determine what went wrong.

He said the attackers had detailed information about the school.

“They knew where the boys' and girls' hostels were located,” said Olum from Mpondwe. “They locked the boys' dormitory and set it on fire. They didn't lock the girls' section and the girls managed to get out, but they were hit with machetes as they ran to safety or shot."

He said some of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and would require DNA testing to identify them.

“We have called for increased firepower, aircraft to assist in the operation to rescue the abductees and locate insurgent hideouts,” he said.

Rare attack

The rebels fled to Virunga, a vast expanse on the border with Uganda and Rwanda and a world-famous sanctuary for rare species, including mountain gorillas.

But militias, dozens of which operate in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, use the park as a hideout.

Initially made up of mostly Muslim Ugandan rebels, the ADF gained a foothold in the east of the DRC in the 1990s.

Since 2019, the Islamic State group, which describes the militants as a local offshoot, the Islamic State's Central African province, has claimed responsibility for some ADF attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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ADF attacks are less common in Uganda and casualties from Friday's attack are the highest in years.

This is not the first ADF attack on a school in Uganda.

In June 1998, 80 students were burned in their dormitories in an ADF attack on the Kichwamba Technical Institute near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. More than 100 students were abducted.

Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo launched a joint offensive in 2021 to push out the ADF, but these measures have so far failed to end the group's attacks.

In March of this year, the United States offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of the ADF leader.

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