A school in western Uganda was attacked by ISIL-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels during which about 40 people, mostly students, were gruesomely murdered. An additional eight persons remain in a critical condition after the attack on Lhubiriha secondary school in Mpondwe. Others at the school, mostly girls, have been abducted by the group. Boys who were staying in dormitories at the school are among the dead. Many of the bodies were transferred to Bwera Hospital, national police spokesperson Fred Enanga disclosed. The distressing attack happened around 23:30 local time (20:30 GMT) on Friday at the school in the Kasese district of Uganda by the ADF rebels numbering around 20 according to Uganda’s military. ADF rebels burnt a dormitory, and a food store was also looted during the incident, Mr Enanga added. While some of the boys were burnt, others were hacked with matchets or shot to death, Major General Dick Olum from the Ugandan army told media.
Some of the bodies are said to have been badly burnt and DNA tests may not be able to be carried out to identify them.
The school is situated along Uganda’s border with Congo in the town of Kasese.
Major General Dick Olum, the army’s commander for western Uganda in charge of a military deployment in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said the attackers had stayed in the town two days before the attack, marking their target.
He said an unidentified youth had gone to the school to check its layout before the attack.
“That is how the attackers came and locked the boys’ door. The boys really tried to fight back, but they were overpowered. The attackers had lit mattresses,” Olum told reporters from Mpondwe, according to a video posted on Twitter by the Daily Monitor newspaper.
“In the girls dorm, they found their door open, hence killing and cutting them.”
“Everybody should be on the lookout,” he warned residents in Kasese.
“If you see someone you don’t recognize, have him arrested. Please identify the youth that led the ADF here,” he appealed.
