Locals gather outside the school after the attack. Photo: AP Photo
Islamic State-linked militants hacked and burned 37 students to make Army and police officials say Saturday that the country's worst such attack in more than a decade has died in western Uganda.
The army said it was pursuing Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF) militants after a cross-border raid that took place late Friday at a high school near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Investigators said they dormitories were set on fire and students were attacked with knives in a brutal night attack by the ADF, one of the deadliest groups operating in the conflict-torn east of the DRC.
Felix Kulayigye, spokesman for the Ugandan military, said 37 bodies were found, eight others were injured and six were abducted.
Most of the victims are believed to have been school students.
This is the deadliest attack in Uganda, twin blasts in Kampala have since killed 76 people in a strike claimed by the Somali-based al-Shabaab.
The boy is comforted at the scene of the attack. Photo: AFP via Getty Images.
According to a police report seen by AFP, police and military units were alerted to a «large attack» on Lubiriha High School in Mpondwe around 11:00 pm local time on Friday evening.
«Upon arrival the school was found burning, and the bodies of the students were corpses. The report said they were lying on the property and the school grocery store was broken into» with items missing, the report said.
The school is a little over a mile from the border with the DRC, where the ADF operates mainly, and has been accused of killing thousands of civilians since the 1990s.
Maj. Gen. Dick Olum told AFP there were attackers detailed information about the school.
“They knew where the boys' and girls' dorms were located,” Mr. Olum said. “That's why the rebels locked up the boys' dormitory and set it on fire. The rebels did not lock up the girls' section and the girls managed to get out, but they were cut with machetes as they fled for safety, and others were shot.”
He said some of the bodies would require DNA testing.
Ugandan soldiers patrol the Virunga National Park. Photo: SEBASTIEN KITSA MUSAYI/AFP
«We called for more firepower, aircraft to assist in the abductee rescue operation and locate insurgent hideouts for the war effort,» he said.
The rebels fled to the Virunga National Park, a vast expanse on the border with Uganda and Rwanda and a world-famous sanctuary for rare species, including mountain gorillas. wealthy eastern DRC — the park is also used as a hideout.
Originally made up of mostly Muslim Ugandan rebels, the ADF gained a foothold in eastern DRC in the 1990s.
Since 2019 Some ADF attacks in eastern DRC have been claimed by the Islamic State, which describes the militants as a local offshoot, a province of the Islamic State in Central Africa.
ADF attacks in Uganda are less common, and casualties from Friday attacks the attack is the worst in years by any group.
Uganda and the DRC launched a joint offensive in 2021 to drive the ADF out of their Congolese strongholds, but the measures have so far failed to end the group's attacks.
In March of this year, the United States announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of the ADF leader.
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