Assault on Uganda College Kills Dozens

Not less than 37 individuals had been killed and eight others wounded when militants with an extremist group attacked a secondary college in western Uganda, the authorities stated on Saturday, in one of many deadliest terrorist assaults to hit the East African nation in years.

The armed outfit, generally known as the Allied Democratic Forces, attacked a college in Mpondwe, a city near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Friday evening, a police spokesman, Fred Enanga, said on Twitter. Throughout the assault, a dormitory was burned and meals in a retailer was looted, he stated. Not less than eight individuals had been in vital situation and had been hospitalized, Mr. Enanga added.

Ugandan officers stated the military and the police had been pursuing the attackers towards the Virunga Nationwide Park, a thick forest in neighboring Congo that’s residence to endangered mountain gorillas.

Three individuals had been rescued from the scene of the assault, however six others had been kidnapped, a navy spokesman, Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye, said in a statement.

The assault is the worst that the group has carried out in Uganda since late 2021, when suicide bombers set off coordinated explosions within the capital, Kampala, that killed three individuals, sowing fears in regards to the group’s attain and posing a vexing problem for the Ugandan authorities.

Since then, the Ugandan authorities, at the side of the Congolese authorities, has launched an offensive in opposition to the Allied Democratic Forces with the goal of rooting the group out from its bases in japanese Congo.

The 2 governments have supplied few particulars in regards to the navy marketing campaign, saying solely that air and artillery strikes have weakened the group. However regional observers have remained uncertain in regards to the success of the operation, code-named Shujaa, or “Bravery,” saying that the militants have continued to wreak havoc in japanese Congo, a lush, mineral-rich area the place greater than 100 insurgent teams have overseen a wave of massacres and widespread destruction for many years.

Consultants additionally say that Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, who has been in energy for nearly 4 a long time, was utilizing the operation to bolster his picture and to safe oil fields which are being dug close to the border with Congo.

The assault, which started round 11:30 p.m. on Friday, was extensively condemned by lawmakers, opposition parties and Western embassies, who referred to as on the federal government to institute measures to stop such actions sooner or later.

“We hope that investigations can start in earnest in order that the perpetrators of this crime face justice,” Bobi Wine, a musician-turned-opposition-leader, said on Twitter.

On Saturday afternoon, images and video shared on social media and tv channels confirmed a heavy navy presence within the space as assist employees responded to the scene of the assault. Basic Kulayigye, the navy spokesman, stated the chief of the nation’s protection forces and the commander of the land forces had been anticipated to go to the world.

Maj. Gen. Dick Olum, the commander of Uganda’s navy operation in Congo, said at a meeting with residents that insurgent members had spent two nights within the city earlier than attacking the college. He stated that among the college students had been burned or hacked to loss of life, and that authorities pathologists would perform DNA assessments to establish the charred our bodies.

The federal government has deployed planes to go looking for individuals who had been kidnapped, he added. He additionally referred to as in town’s residents to stay vigilant and report something suspicious.

The truth that this assault occurred, he stated, “is a really shameful factor.”

The Allied Democratic Forces was established in japanese Congo in 1995 by two teams against Mr. Museveni, considered one of them an Islamist sect. The group additionally obtained regional backing from leaders in different international locations, together with Sudan and Congo, who sought to undermine Mr. Museveni’s rule.

In 1998, rebels affiliated with the group attacked a school in western Uganda, killing 80 college students and kidnapping 100 others. However starting in 2011, main offensives carried out by the Ugandans, the Congolese and United Nations peacekeeping forces undermined the group, prompting it to retreat deeper into the mountainous Ruwenzori area that borders Uganda and Congo.

The group’s former chief, Jamil Mukulu, was additionally captured in Tanzania in 2015 after which extradited to Uganda.

The group has nonetheless continued to hold out much more vicious assaults. Over the previous few years, it has recruited new members, together with kids; attacked peacekeepers; performed jail breaks; and engaged in sexual violence, in keeping with the United Nations.

It additionally pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, which in 2019 claimed its first assault in Congo. In 2021, the USA designated the A.D.F. a terrorist group and supplied a reward of as much as $5 million for info on the group’s new chief, Seka Musa Baluku.

However whereas there are some monetary connections and ideological similarities between the 2 entities, regional observers and United Nations specialists say there isn’t any “conclusive proof” of the Islamic State commanding or controlling the group’s operations.