TOPSHOT – A mourning relative is conforted during the funeral of Florence Masika and Zakayo Masereka in Mpondwe on June 18, 2023. Florence and Zakayo have been killed near the border with the Democratic republic of Congo by fleeing assaliants who the authorities believe to belong to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia based in DR Congo. Grieving families prepared to bury their dead in western Uganda on Sunday while others desperately searched for loved ones still missing after militants killed dozens of students in a school attack. Officials say at least 41 people, mostly students, were massacred on Friday in the worst attack of its kind in Uganda since 2010. Victims were hacked, shot and burned in the late-night raid on Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe, which lies less than two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo by Stuart Tibaweswa / AFP) (Photo by STUART TIBAWESWA/AFP via Getty Images)

Culture

Monday 19 June 2023

Uganda attack

Senior Reporter

Will Brown

Culture

Uganda school suffers one of the country’s deadliest terrorist attacks

Bludgeoned, slashed and burned to death. That was the fate of 38 schoolchildren in western Uganda last Friday. The army has blamed the massacre in Mpondwe town on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan jihadist group allied to Islamic State operating in DR Congo. A top general said the jihadists stayed in the town, scouting out the school for several days before the attack. Uganda has been battling the group for decades, most recently deploying drones deep into the Congolese rainforest to scout out rebel bush camps. The ADF is regularly blamed for church bombings, roadside explosions or village purges on the Congolese side of the border but their trail of destruction slipped out of the headlines long ago.

Photograph Stuart Tibaweswa / AFP via Getty Images