ISIS-linked group kills at least 41 in Ugandan school attack

Armed rebels attacked a school in western Uganda, killing at least 41 people, mostly students, and kidnapping six others, Ugandan officials said.

Some were killed with machetes, while others died when their dormitories were set on fire, military spokesman Felix Kulayigye told the CNN .

About 20 members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group, linked to the Islamic State, attacked the Lhubirira secondary school on Friday night (16), according to the Ugandan military.

The school is situated on the Congo-Congo border in the town of Kasese and educates children aged between 13 and 18. Of the dead, 39 were students and two were from the local community, local officials said.

Authorities were still trying to extinguish the fire on Saturday morning. The military suspects that more corpses may be found, but said there was no one alive trapped in the school.

According to Kulayigye, there were 62 people in the school during the attack.

“We stand in solidarity with the families, and the leadership of the UPDF (Uganda People’s Defense Forces) is on the ground and has been deployed to protect the site,” he added.

Spokesperson for Uganda’s military operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Major Bilal Katamba, told CNN that the military is chasing the suspects in the DRC and believes they are heading towards Virunga National Park.

Major Dick Olum, commander of the UPDF operation in eastern DRC, said the rebels had spent two days in the town – where they were driven and guided by locals – before the killings.

“Everyone should be on their guard,” warned Kasese residents.

“If you see someone you don’t recognize, have them arrested. Please identify the young people who led the ADF here,” she appealed.

Funeral home “too crowded”

An eyewitness who lost three cousins ​​in the brutal attack told CNN that the local mortuary is “too crowded” as victims rescued from the school continue to be treated.

“I knew that my relatives were at school, so when I heard about the incident, very early in the morning we rushed to the hospital and found their bodies there, and the morgue was full,” said Clay Biromunane.

Biromunane was in his room about 300 meters from the school when he heard gunshots around 22:40 local time.

“Until now, people walk around looking for their relatives,” said Biromunane.

The 35-year-old said the community was “very surprised” by the attack and said he had never experienced anything like it before.

Mapoze Slevest, mayor of Mpondwe, also expressed surprise, telling reporters that Mpondwe “was a good community without rebels”.

Based on the mountainous Uganda-DRC border, the ADF began fighting the government after it was founded in the mid-1990s.

The group was sanctioned by the United States and the United Nations in 2014 for terrorist activities in the region, including attacks on children.

The US Treasury Department denounced the ADF “for targeting children in situations of armed conflict, including through murder, rape, abduction and forced displacement”.

In January, the ADF was accused of detonating a bomb during a religious service in the DRC, killing at least 12 worshipers.