They killed boys and kidnapped girls, shortly before midnight. They detonated bombs and set fire to a dormitory that housed most of the 60 students who lived and studied at Lubera Secondary School in Mbundwe, a town in southwestern Uganda less than two kilometers from the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They flee across the border, towards Virunga National Park, after chasing down the boys who survived the fire with machetes.
the group
The perpetrators of the massacre: five men who belonged to the Allied Democratic Forces, a jihadist group affiliated with the Islamic State. Provisional death toll: 40 dead, mostly students 16 and over, A. saidfp The government official in charge of the area, Joe Valosimbi. Eight injured people are in critical condition at Buera Hospital.
Pursuit
Many of the bodies could not be identified: a DNA test would be required for identification. Many boys are missing and it is not clear how many people (especially girls) have been kidnapped by the terrorists. Ugandan security forces chase commandos across the border, including using helicopters, into the forest of Africa’s oldest national park, VirungaIt is one of the last habitats of the rare mountain gorilla. The southern edge of the park is not far from where Italian Ambassador Luca Attanasio was killed in an ambush two years ago. In this vast area, armed militias move from one side of the border to the other, between Congo and Uganda. A week ago, an Australian Defense Force cell attacked a village in North Kivu, and 100 people fled to Uganda. They were known to be in the area, but no one thought they could run into Mpondwe School. It is the first attack of its kind in 25 years: She remembers that the last time the insurgents beat them was in June 1998 BBC. At that time, 80 students perished in a similar fire at Ketchwamba Technical College.
Jihadi group
ADF was born in the 90s of the last century among opponents President Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, is accused of marginalizing Uganda’s Muslims (who officially make up 14% of the population). The group later split up and reunited on multiple occasions. Over the course of twenty years, he moved his bases from the Rwenzori mountain region, where he was being pursued by Museveni’s army, to North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an unchecked hive of economic interests and armed groups.
In 2010 the group «signed». A massacre in a club in Kampalawhere dozens of people died while watching a game World Cup in South Africa. ADF founder, Catholic convert to Islam, Lovely McCulloughHe was arrested in 2015 in Tanzania and is currently being held in Uganda. He was replaced by a rival leader, the separatist Musa Baluku. In 2019, the Islamic State formalized affiliation with the ADF, presenting it as its Central African affiliate. After years of silence, the jihadists are back to hit the capital, Kampala, with suicide bombings in 2021.
country and its leader
Uganda is one of the youngest countries in the world (average age is under 18). A historic ally of the United States in the region, it has been ruled by the same person for nearly forty years. In recent days, Washington has imposed sanctions on some politicians associated with the president, responsible for the recent law that provides for very severe penalties (life imprisonment and death) for homosexuals. Museveni shrugs, paving the way for a succession Ibn Mohzi, and at the same time active internationally: He was supposed to take part in the African Union-led peace mission between Ukraine and Russia, but officially stayed home because he was sick with Covid. Or maybe he suspected that the jihadists were preparing to attack.
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