Uganda: Dozens Dead in Attack On School

Radio Okapi/ Ph. Marc Maro Fimbo
Captured ADF soldiers in Beni North Kivu (file photo).
17 June 2023
Deutsche Welle (Bonn)

Police in Uganda said 25 people were killed when the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked a school in the nation's west.

At least 25 people have been killed in a "terrorist attack" on a school in western Uganda, the Ugandan Police Force said on Saturday.

According to police, the Lhubirira secondary school in Mpondwe was attacked by members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)-- a Ugandan group based in eastern Congo that is aligned with the Islamic State -- late on Friday.

"So far 25 bodies have been recovered from the school and transferred to Bwera Hospital", police said on Twitter. The school where the attack took place is situated 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Not known if any children were killed

Of the 25 people killed, police did not say how many of the victims were children, if any.

"Also recovered are eight victims, who remain in critical condition at Bwera hospital," the statement added.

Police said that a dormitory was set alight, and food was looted.

Ugandan forces were pursuing the attackers who fled towards Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, police said.

Local publication, the Daily Monitor newspaper, citing security sources, reported that the attackers "abducted several" others before fleeing.

The ADF found a foothold in eastern DRC in the 1990s. It has since been accused of killing thousands of civilians.

Earlier in April, the ADF had attacked a village in eastern DRC, leaving at least 20 people dead.

dvv/kb (AFP, Reuters)

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