At a school in western Uganda, rebels affiliated with the Islamic State organization have killed about 40 people, the most of whom were children.

Following the attack on the Lhubiriha secondary school in Mpondwe, an additional eight individuals are still in serious condition.

Among those killed were boys who were residing in the school’s dormitories.

The attack on Friday has been attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan organization located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Warning: Certain aspects in this story may distress some individuals.
According to Fred Enanga, a spokesman for the national police, many of the bodies were taken to Bwera Hospital.

The assault took place on Friday at the school in the Kasese district of western Uganda at about 23:30 local time (20:30 GMT).

The majority of the almost 60 students who attend the school reside there.

According to Mr. Enanga, during the event, ADF rebels robbed a food store and set a dormitory on fire.

According to Ugandan army Major General Dick Olum, some of the youngsters were burned to death or hacked to death.

He claimed that the organization has also kidnapped other students at the institution, especially girls.

DNA tests will be required to identify some of the victims because they were allegedly severely burned.

The attackers are alleged to have set the students’ bedding on fire and are suspected of having planted bombs nearby.

There may be people from the larger community among the deceased. A lot of students are still missing.

Soldiers are following ADF terrorists toward the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is home to rare animals like mountain gorillas and is Africa’s oldest and largest national park.

The wide area, which borders Uganda and Rwanda, is used as a hideout by militias like the ADF.

In order to free the kidnapped people and defeat this organization, our soldiers are chasing the enemy, according to defense spokesperson Felix Kulayigye on Twitter.

The Ugandan army has also sent out aircraft to assist in locating the rebel group.

To stop ADF attacks, Uganda and the DRC have conducted coordinated military operations in eastern Congo.

Prior to the attack on Friday night, security forces had intelligence that rebels had been present in the border region on the DRC side for at least two days, according to Major General Olum.

The violent incident comes after last week’s purported ADF fighter raid in a community in the DRC close to the Ugandan border. More than 100 villagers left for Uganda but later came back.

This attack on the school, which is less than two kilometers (1.25 miles) from the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is the first one on a Ugandan school in twenty-five years.

In a June 1998 ADF raid on Kichwamba Technical Institute near the border with the DRC, 80 students were killed by fire in their dormitories. Over 100 pupils were kidnapped.

The ADF, which claims that the government is persecuting Muslims, was founded in eastern Uganda in the 1990s and has since fought against longtime President Yoweri Museveni.

After being routed by the Ugandan army in 2001, it moved to the DRC’s North Kivu province.

Jamil Makulu, the main founder of the organisation, was detained in a Ugandan prison after being taken into custody in Tanzania in 2015.

For the past 20 years, ADF insurgents have operated out of the DRC.

Musa Seka Baluku, Makulu’s successor, is said to have originally sworn allegiance to the Islamic State organization in 2016, but it wasn’t until April 2019 that IS first recognized its presence in the region.

Suicide attacks in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and other regions of the nation were attributed to the ADF in 2021.