At least 37 people were killed, mostly students, in an attack by jihadists overnight from Friday to Saturday against a school where a dormitory was set on fire, in western Uganda, near the border with DR Congo. “Unfortunately, 37 bodies have been discovered and taken to Bwera Hospital Mortuary,” Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) spokesman Felix Kulayigye said in a statement on Saturday, referring to a town close to the site of the attack.
Police spokesman Fred Enanga said earlier that “eight injured people were also found and are still in critical condition at Bwera hospital”. Investigators say dormitories were burned and students were stabbed to death in a brutal assault by the Armed Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militia that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and is based in eastern DR Congo. Uganda National Police spokesman, Fred Enanga said the ADF raided Lhubiriha High School, Mpondwe, near Bwera, where they also “looted” a food store.
The ADF may also have kidnapped several people, according to the Ugandan Armed Forces spokesman. A number of students are still missing, said district commissioner Joe Walusimbi. The army and the police pursue the attackers who fled in the direction of the national park of Virunga, located on the other side of the border, in DR Congo, where the ADF are. It is the deadliest attack in Uganda since the double attack in Kampala in 2010 which killed 76 people during a raid claimed by the Islamist group Shebab based in Somalia.