At Least 41, Mostly students, Killed In Deadly Uganda School Attack

International

oi-PTI

The mayor of the Ugandan border where suspected rebels attacked a school says 41 bodies have been recovered, including 38 students.

Police say the rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces, who have been launching attacks for years from their bases in volatile eastern Congo, carried out the raid late Friday on Lhubiriha Secondary School in the border town of Mpondwe.

Mayor Selevest Mapoze says those killed include 38 students, one guard and two members of the local community who were shot outside the school.

Suspected Ugandan rebels with ties to the Islamic State group attacked a school near the Congo border, killing at least 25 people, abducting others and setting a dormitory on fire, officials said Saturday.

Police said the rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces, who have been launching attacks for years from their bases in volatile eastern Congo, carried out the raid late Friday on Lhubiriha Secondary School in the border town of Mpondwe.

The school, co-ed and privately owned, is located in the Ugandan district of Kasese, about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Congo border.

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“A dormitory was set on fire and a food store looted. So far 25 bodies have been recovered from the school and transferred to Bwera Hospital,” police said in a statement, adding that eight others were in critical condition.

A government official and a military spokesman said others were abducted.

It was not immediately clear if all of the victims were students.

Police said Ugandan troops tracked the attackers into Congo’s Virunga National Park. The military confirmed in a statement that Ugandan troops inside Congo “are pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted.”

Joe Walusimbi, an official representing Uganda’s president in Kasese, told The Associated Press over the phone that authorities were trying to verify the number of victims and those abducted.