At least 41 people were killed, most of them students, in a Friday night raid by jihadists on a high school dormitory in western Uganda, the worst such attack in the country for years.
“Unfortunately, 37 bodies were discovered and taken to the morgue of Bwera hospital,” said Felix Kulayigye, spokesman for the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF), in a statement on Saturday, referring to a town near the scene of the attack.
An earlier report put the death toll at 25, all students, with eight wounded in critical condition.
The Ugandan army announced that it was in pursuit of assailants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militia that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, following their raid on the school in the Kasese district, near the border with DR Congo. The assailants fled in the direction of the Virunga National Park on Congolese territory.
Ugandan National Police spokesman Fred Enanga said the ADF attacked Lhubiriha High School in Mpondwe, near Bwera, where “a dormitory was set on fire and a food store looted”.
The lycée is less than two kilometers from the border with DR Congo, where the ADF are active and are accused of having killed thousands of civilians since the 1990s.
The UPDF spokesman said the ADF may also have kidnapped several people. “Our forces are pursuing the enemy to rescue the abductees and destroy this group,” he said in a statement.