37 dead, including many students, in militant attack on Uganda school
NAIROBI, Kenya — At least 37 people were killed — many of them students — and eight others were wounded when militants with an extremist group attacked a secondary school in western Uganda, authorities said Saturday, in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the East African nation in years.
The group, known as the Allied Democratic Forces, attacked the school Friday night in Mpondwe, a town near the border with Congo, a police spokesperson said on Twitter.
During the attack, a dormitory was burned and food in a store was looted, said the spokesperson, Fred Enanga. All eight who were wounded were hospitalized in critical condition, he added.
Three people were rescued, but six students were abducted, a military spokesperson, Brigadier General Felix Kulayigye, said in a statement. The attack, which began at about 11:30 p.m. Friday, was carried out by about five militants, authorities said.
Militants from the same group staged an attack in Uganda in late 2021, when suicide bombers set off coordinated explosions in the capital, Kampala, that killed three people, sowing fears about the Allied Democratic Forces’ reach and posing a vexing challenge for Ugandan authorities.
This weekend’s attack was widely condemned by lawmakers, opposition parties, and Western embassies, which called on the government to institute measures to prevent such actions in the future.
“We hope that investigations can begin in earnest so that the perpetrators of this crime face justice,” Bobi Wine, a Ugandan musician turned opposition leader, said on Twitter.
The Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary School is a private school only miles from the busy border crossing with Congo. On Saturday afternoon, photos and video shared on social media and television showed a heavy military presence near the school as aid workers arrived.
Major General Dick Olum, commander of Uganda’s military operation in Congo, said that rebel members had spent two nights in the town before attacking the school. He said that some of the students had been burned or hacked to death.
Ugandan officials said the army and police were pursuing the attackers, who had fled toward Virunga National Park, a thick forest in neighboring Congo.