Daesh-linked terrorist slaughter 41 in attack on Uganda school

Daesh-linked terrorists have slaughtered 41 people and abducted others in an attack on a school in western Uganda near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities said.

Ugandan authorities have found the bodies of 41 people, including 38 students, after Daesh-affiliated rebels attacked a secondary school near the border with Congo, Uganda’s local mayor declared on Saturday.

The victims included students, a security guard and two members of the local community who were killed outside the school, Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Mayor Selevest Mapoze said, noting that an unknown number of people were also kidnapped by the rebels, who fled across the porous border into Congo after the attack on Friday night.

The co-ed and privately owned school is located in the Ugandan district of Kasese, nearly two kilometers from the Congo border, local officials added.

“Our forces are pursuing the enemy to rescue the abductees and destroy this group,” defense ministry spokesman Felix Kulayigye said in a Twitter post as cited in press reports.

Officials did not say how many people were abducted by the assailants, members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) insurgent group that has pledged allegiance to the Daesh (ISIS) terror group.

Joe Walusimbi, an official representing Uganda’s president in Kasese, said that some of the victims “were burnt beyond recognition.”

“A dormitory was set on fire and a food store looted. So far 25 bodies have been recovered from the school and transferred to Bwera Hospital,” police said in a statement, adding that eight others were in critical condition.

The attackers fled to Virunga National Park in Congo, police added.