Assault on Uganda College Kills Dozens

Not less than 37 folks have been killed — a lot of them college students — and eight others have been wounded when militants with an extremist group attacked a secondary college in western Uganda, the authorities stated on Saturday, in one of many deadliest terrorist assaults within the East African nation in years.

The group, referred to as the Allied Democratic Forces, attacked the varsity on Friday evening in Mpondwe, a city close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, a police spokesman stated on Twitter. Throughout the assault, a dormitory was burned and meals in a retailer was looted, stated the spokesman, Fred Enanga. All eight who have been wounded have been hospitalized in crucial situation, he added.

Three folks have been rescued, however six college students have been kidnapped, a navy spokesman, Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye, stated in an announcement.

The assault, which started round 11:30 p.m. on Friday and which the authorities stated had been carried out by about 5 militants, is the deadliest that the Allied Democratic Forces has staged in Uganda since late 2021, when suicide bombers set off coordinated explosions within the capital, Kampala, that killed three folks, sowing fears concerning the group’s attain and posing a vexing problem for the Ugandan authorities.

This weekend’s assault was extensively condemned by lawmakers, opposition events and Western embassies, who known as on the federal government to institute measures to stop such actions sooner or later.

“We hope that investigations can start in earnest in order that the perpetrators of this crime face justice,” Bobi Wine, a Ugandan musician turned opposition chief, stated on Twitter.

On Saturday afternoon, images and video shared on social media and tv confirmed a heavy navy presence close to the varsity as help staff arrived. Basic Kulayigye stated the chief of the nation’s protection forces and the commander of the land forces have been anticipated to go to the world. Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, additionally instructed officers from the Ministry of Training to go to the varsity.

The Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary College is a non-public college solely miles from the busy border crossing with Congo. The college is about 200 miles from Kampala, in a poor farming group the place many households domesticate and promote crops, together with maize and cassava.

Lots of the colleges in Uganda, each private and non-private, have dormitories for boarding college students. Pictures and movies from the varsity on Saturday confirmed the home windows and corrugated roofs of the dormitories blackened with soot.

Maj. Gen. Dick Olum, the commander of Uganda’s navy operation in Congo, stated at a gathering with residents that insurgent members had spent two nights within the city earlier than attacking the varsity. He stated that among the college students had been burned or hacked to dying, and that authorities pathologists would perform DNA checks to establish the charred our bodies.

Ugandan officers stated the military and the police have been pursuing the attackers, who had fled towards the Virunga Nationwide Park, a thick forest in neighboring Congo that’s residence to endangered mountain gorillas. The militants used the kidnapped college students to hold the looted meals, the navy stated.

The federal government has deployed planes within the search, Basic Olum stated. He additionally known as in town’s residents to stay vigilant and report something suspicious.

The truth that this assault occurred, the overall stated, “is a really shameful factor.”

Since 2021, the Ugandan authorities, at the side of the Congolese authorities, has launched an offensive in opposition to the Allied Democratic Forces, with the purpose of rooting the group out from its bases in jap Congo.

The 2 governments have offered few particulars concerning the navy marketing campaign, saying solely that air and artillery strikes have weakened the group, which at one level pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

However regional observers have remained uncertain concerning the success of the operation, code-named Shujaa, or “Bravery,” saying that the Allied Democratic Forces has continued to wreak havoc in jap Congo, a lush, mineral-rich area the place greater than 100 insurgent teams have overseen a wave of massacres and widespread destruction for many years.

Specialists additionally say that Mr. Museveni, who has been in energy for nearly 4 many years, was utilizing the operation to bolster his picture and to safe oil fields which can be being dug close to the border with Congo.

The Allied Democratic Forces was established in jap Congo in 1995 by two teams against Mr. Museveni, considered one of them an Islamist sect. The group additionally obtained regional backing from leaders in different nations, together with Sudan and Congo, who sought to undermine Mr. Museveni’s rule.

In 1998, rebels affiliated with the group attacked a school in western Uganda, killing 80 college students and kidnapping 100 others. However starting in 2011, main offensives carried out by the Ugandans, the Congolese and United Nations peacekeeping forces undermined the group, prompting it to retreat deeper into the mountainous Ruwenzori area that borders Uganda and Congo.

The group’s former chief, Jamil Mukulu, was captured in Tanzania in 2015 after which extradited to Uganda.

The group has nonetheless continued to hold out much more vicious assaults. Over the previous few years, it has recruited new members, together with kids; attacked peacekeepers; performed jail breaks; and engaged in sexual violence, in line with the United Nations.

It additionally pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, which in 2019 claimed its first assault in Congo. In 2021, the US designated the Allied Democratic Forces a terrorist group and provided a reward of as much as $5 million for info on the group’s new chief, Seka Musa Baluku.

However whereas there are some monetary connections and ideological similarities between the 2 entities, regional observers and United Nations specialists say there is no such thing as a “conclusive proof” of the Islamic State’s commanding or controlling the group’s operations.

Friday’s assault, observers stated, confirmed how the group relied on spontaneous assaults and guerrilla ways to hold out deadly onslaughts.

“Moreover, the A.D.F.’s capacity to merge with civilian communities permits them to lie low when obligatory, and to re-emerge when circumstances are extra favorable,” stated Michael Mutyaba, a Ugandan researcher and political analyst. “This explains why it’s proving resilient.”

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