IS-Linked Militants Kill 41 In Attack On Uganda School, Many Students Missing

At least 41 people died including 38 students and several others were injured after rebels linked to the Islamic State group attacked a school in Uganda, reported BBC. The attack took place at Lhubiriha secondary school in Mpondwe. The BBC mentioned that police said the attack on Friday was carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – a Ugandan group based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Several youths are reportedly missing after the attack.

The victims included the students, one guard and two members of the local community who were killed outside the school, reported The Associated Press citing Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Mayor Selevest Mapoze.

Meanwhile, soldiers are looking for the group that fled towards Virunga National Park in the DRC, police added.

“So far 25 bodies have been recovered from the school and transferred to Bwera Hospital”, national police spokesman Fred Enanga earlier said in a statement on Saturday, as quoted by BBC.

A dormitory at the school was burnt and a food store was looted during Friday night’s attack, the report said. The attackers are also thought to have detonated bombs in the region. BBC reported that dozens of people are feared to have been abducted and a number of students are still unaccounted for.

Defense spokesman Felix Kulayigye said, “Our forces are pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted and destroy this group.”

Notably, the militias including the ADF also use the vast expanse, which borders Uganda and Rwanda, as a hideout. Uganda and the DRC have held joint military operations in the east Congo to prevent attacks by the ADF.

However, the attack is the first of its kind amid a continuous fight between DRC and ADF.

BBC reported that in June 1998, 80 students were burnt to death in their dormitories in an ADF attack on Kichwamba Technical Institute near the border of DRC. Over 100 students were abducted, BBC mentioned.

The ADF was created in eastern Uganda in the 1990s and took up arms against long-serving President, Yoweri Museveni, alleging government persecution of Muslims. After its defeat by the Ugandan army in 2001, it relocated to North Kivu province in the DRC.

ADF rebels have been operating from inside the DRC for the past two decades. In 2021, suicide bombings in Uganda’s capital Kampala and other parts of the country were blamed on the ADF.