“On arrival, the school was found burning with dead bodies of students lying in the compound,” according to the statement.
There have been conflicting accounts of the exact toll numbers. Local mayor Selevest Mapoze told the Associated Press that the death toll stood at 41, including 38 students, one guard and two members of the local community. Mapoze said some of the students suffered fatal burns after the attackers set fire to a dormitory, while others were shot or hacked with machetes.
Authorities have blamed the attack in the town of Mpondwe — about 1.2 miles from the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo — on the ADF rebel group.
“Our forces are pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted and destroy this group,” the spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense tweeted Saturday, noting the attack began at 11:30 p.m. local time the night before.
“A hot pursuit by the UPDF [Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces] and the police is ongoing, toward Virunga National Park,” police spokesman Fred Enanga said in a statement overnight. “We do offer our deepest condolences to the families of those who have been killed, and offer our prayers and thoughts to those who have been wounded.”
The ADF was founded by Ugandan exiles in Congo in 1995 with the aim of toppling Uganda’s government. The United Nations said in 2020 that the group may have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, including abductions, civilian killings and use of child soldiers.
The group established ties with the Islamic State group in 2018 and has carried out numerous attacks against civilians, armed forces and U.N. peacekeepers inside Congo, according to the U.S. State Department, which designated the ADF an Islamic State affiliate as well as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2021.
