Questions in Uganda and the DRC after the attack, in the night from Friday to Saturday, of a high school in Mpondwe, a city bordering the Congolese territory of Beni where the rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) impose horror for a decade. Attack attributed according to the Ugandan authorities, to members of this armed group affiliated with the Islamic State since 2019 and which claimed the lives of at least 41 people, most of whom are high school students. Questions persist about the security system in such a militarized region.
With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Pascal Mulegwa
Whether on the Congolese or Ugandan side, military sources say that the assailants who attacked the school had already been on Ugandan territory for a few days, taking advantage of the porous borders to cross to their home in Uganda.
A Congolese administrative source acknowledges that joint operations between the armies of the two countries have focused more on the interior, without prioritizing increased border surveillance.
The attack on the Lubirhia high school was carried out in retaliation for the advances of Ugandan-Congolese troops in the territory of Beni and in the province of Ituri, according to a Congolese spokesman.
President Yoweri Museveni in a speech on Sunday evening supported the same version, saying that joint troops have in recent months taken over and demolished several ADF strongholds in eastern DRC.
Researchers from the Kivu Security Barometer, a research project under the Congo Study Group (GEC), believe that the ADF did what they do best: massacres of civilians to terrorize “.
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During the last massacres in Congolese territory, the ADF used edged weapons, which made it possible to avoid the crackling of bullets. This modus operandi would limit the possibilities of rapid intervention of the armies whose responsiveness has increased, particularly in the Ruwenzori sector, in Beni. They also carried out more attacks in areas like the Bashu chiefdom where there was not yet a strong military presence.