The attackers set the school dormitory on fire and detonated bombs. Dozens of students have been kidnapped.
In Uganda, at least 37 people have been killed in an attack on the Lhubiriha school in Mpondwe, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, on the night before Saturday, according to the Ugandan army.
Among other things, the attackers set the school’s dormitory on fire.
According to the police, eight people were wounded in the attack, all of whom are in critical condition at a local hospital.
All those killed in the attack were students of the school.
The number of victims is reported by the local authorities’ broadcasting company for the BBC according to the information given, it will still rise to close to forty, because the attackers also detonated bombs in the area.
The attackers are also believed to have kidnapped dozens of people, as many students are still missing.
According to the authorities, the ADF group, which is known to have connections with the ISIS extremist organization, was behind the attack.
The attackers fled to the national park
The attackers fled to the nearby Virunga National Park after their deed.
– Our troops are tracking the enemy so that we can free the kidnapped and destroy the group, assured the representative of the Ugandan Defense Forces Felix Kulayigye on Twitter.
Initially founded as a rebel organization in Uganda, the ADF gained a foothold in the Congo in the 1990s. It is suspected to have killed thousands of civilians in its attacks.
Since 2019, Isis has said that it was responsible for at least some of the ADF’s attacks in the Congo. It says the ADF fighters belong to a local splinter group of ISIS.
Ugandan and Congolese militaries have been cooperating in eastern Congo to prevent ADF attacks. The attack on the night before Saturday was the first school attack in years.
In June 1998, a total of 80 students died in a fire and hundreds were kidnapped when the ADF attacked Kichwamba Technical Institute in Kabarole, Uganda.
Source: AFP