Parents in Uganda are burying their children after a radical rebel group with ties to ISIS killed scores of them by hacking and burning down their schools. Security personnel have increased patrols along the border with dangerous eastern Congo after a devastating attack on Friday left 42 people dead, many of them students.
One of the eight persons injured in the incident that killed 38 pupils succumbed to their injuries overnight.
Most family members have arrived at the morgue to claim the remains. A school guard and three civilians were also killed in addition to the 38 children.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) has been accused of the attack, even though they seldom take credit for their actions and have links to ISIS. In March, the ADF is said to have launched an attack on unsuspecting civilians in the eastern Congo that resulted in the deaths of 19 persons. Museveni, a US security ally who has ruled the East African country since 1986, has been attacked by the organization for a long time.
The same script for violence against students was used in this incident. When the guys in two dorms protested, the attackers resorted to severe measures. Uganda’s first lady and education minister, Janet Museveni, claimed the terrorists put in a bomb since they couldn’t get in. The coed and privately owned Lhubiriha Secondary School was assaulted by militants armed with firearms and machetes barely over a mile from the Congo border, leaving several kids charred beyond recognition and others shot or hacked to death.
At least six students were kidnapped in Uganda and forced to work as porters in the Congo. There were still at least five people from the neighborhood missing; among them were five young women. In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres denounced the attack and emphasized the need for joint action, primarily via strengthened regional partnerships, to address the issue of cross-border instability between Congo and Uganda and bring about lasting peace in the region.
