A UPDF soldier at Lhubirira Secondary School in Mpondwe, Kasese, Uganda on June 17, 2023 after the attack. Alex Ashaba/NMG

Uganda sends more troops to pursue militia who killed over 40 people

Source: The New Times/ Uganda

A UPDF soldier at Lhubirira Secondary School in Mpondwe, Kasese, Uganda on June 17, 2023 after the attack. Alex Ashaba/NMG

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday ordered more troops to western Uganda where attackers from a group with links to Islamic State killed at least 37 secondary school students, Reuters reports.

Members of the rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed the students late on Friday at Lhubirira Secondary School in Mpondwe, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Military and police said the attackers had also abducted six students and fled towards the Virunga National Park across the border. Their fate is unknown.

The President said more soldiers had joined the pursuit in the area, which includes Rwenzori Mountain, from where the ADF launched their insurgency against Museveni in the 1990s.

“We are now sending more troops into the area south of Rwenzori Mountain,” he said in a statement.

“Their action, the desperate, cowardly, terrorist action, therefore, will not save them. We are bringing new forces to the Uganda side as we continue the hunting on the Congo side.”

On Saturday, privately-owned NTV Uganda television said the death toll stood at 41, while the state-run New Vision newspaper said it was 42. New Vision said 39 of the dead were students, and some were killed when the attackers set off a bomb as they fled.

The attack drew widespread international condemnation including from the United Nations, the African Union and East African’s Intergovernmental Authority on Development. Ugandans were shocked by the attack.

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