By Spy Uganda
Uganda is heightening security and has commenced a massive search after militants linked to the Islamic State group that massacred at least 41 people, mostly students, in western parts of the country near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The country’s first lady Janet Museveni while updating on the current situation on Saturday evening said the government was still investigating the whole incident.
“The government through the security agencies is trying to follow up on what actually happened. And it is on the top of the situation, we believe that justice will prevail,” said Janet Museveni, Ugandan minister of Education and Sports.
Officials and witnesses said guns and knives were used in a grisly late-night assault and dormitories were set ablaze at Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe.
Some students recounted the incident terming it horrific.
“We hadn’t yet fallen asleep when we heard people arriving and saying: open up, open up! We didn’t reply. Then they started shooting at the windows and the door. We went to hide under our beds on the floor. As they continued to shoot at the windows, one of us was hit by a bullet and started shouting: “Help, come and help me! When they couldn’t open the door, they continued to shoot at the windows, then set fire to our dormitory while we were inside. They then moved on to the girls’ dormitory,” said Mumbere Edgar Dido, a student who survived the attack.
The military said it was pursuing the attackers from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who also abducted six people during a raid on a school late Friday before fleeing back towards the Democratic Republic of Congo.
‘Appalling’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemns” the attack, and sent his “heartfelt condolences” to the families of the victims, his spokesman said Saturday.
“Those responsible for this appalling act must be brought to justice,” Guterres’ spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement.
“Appalled by the attack at a secondary school in Western Uganda,” wrote Molly Phee, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, on Twitter.
“We send our condolences to the affected families and condemn the attack on schoolchildren.”
France also condemned the deadly attack “in the strongest possible terms,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman in Paris said Saturday.
Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) spokesman Felix Kulayigye said the six kidnapped were taken towards Virunga National Park, a vast expanse that straddles the border.
“UPDF embarked on pursuing the perpetrators to rescue the abducted students.”
