The Ugandan army has successfully liberated three students who were snatched in a violent incursion by militants on the Lhubiriha Secondary School, near the Democratic Republic of Congo border, last Friday, as announced on Wednesday. The attack, leaving the school ransacked and charred with 37 students dead, marked one of the most devastating incidents of violence in Uganda since the 2010 Kampala bombings.
The raid, executed by a five-member faction of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Congo-based militant group associated with the Islamic State, also led to the kidnapping of six students. Uganda’s government claimed the grisly scene unfolded in Mpondwe, near the Congolese border, with the school’s wreckage and bodies scattered around, according to Defence Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye.
Families across the Kasese district in western Uganda have commenced the heartrending task of burying the deceased, which started earlier this week. The rescued students were found in Virunga National Park after the army engaged the militants in the aftermath of the school attack.
“There was a confrontation between the army and the terrorists. Amid the chaos, the lads managed to flee,” Kulayigye revealed to The Washington Post on Wednesday, mentioning the wildlife refuge in neighbouring Congo. He also reported the rescue of a woman and two children, who seemed to have been abducted in a separate militant operation. Furthermore, two insurgents were neutralised, with the hunt for the remaining assailants and kidnapped students ongoing.
As the dead were returned to their families, funeral proceedings began on Sunday. By Monday, 25 postmortem examinations had been conducted at the district’s primary hospital, Bwera General, confirmed Uganda Police Force spokesperson Fred Enanga.
For those families whose children were rendered unrecognisable due to the flames, DNA test results are anxiously awaited to identify their remains. Among the casualties were Mbusa Zephanius, 37, a school security guard, and his son Elton Masereka, 17, as revealed by Zephanius’s brother, Masereka Loti. Another of Zephanius’s sons, Brian Musoka, 17, is currently missing. The pair were interred next to each other at their family home on Sunday.
In the aftermath of the attack, regarded as the most lethal in Uganda since the twin bombings in Kampala in July 2010, locals are appealing for government aid. The ADF, held accountable for the attack, has been a long-standing threat since its inception in 1995 by rebel forces seeking to overthrow the government of President Yoweri Museveni. Lately, a concerted Ugandan and Congolese campaign has sought to dislodge the extremist group from its strongholds in Congo.
Museveni, after the attack, declared, “We have no excuse for not hunting down the ADF terrorists into extinction.”
The funerals, reflecting the depth of the tragedy, are anticipated to continue throughout the week.
