Suspected rebels attacked a school in Uganda Village near the DR Congo border, killing over 41 people.
The relative of a victim of the Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary School mourns outside the Bwera General Hospital Mortuary, Kasese,
Concerned families gathered at a mortuary in western Uganda on Sunday,June 18, seeking news about their loved ones after dozens of students were killed in an attack by a rebel group and many others went missing.
According to officials, at least 41 people, 38 of which were students, were massacred at a secondary school in Mpondwe town close to the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) late on Friday, June 16.
Some victims were hacked, shot and burned to death in the attack on Lhubiriha Secondary School, leaving Uganda shocked and drawing condemnation from around the world.
Also, the army and the police accused the Allied Democratic Front (ADF) armed group for the attack. The attackers abducted six people as they escaped.
The military said it was pursuing the attackers and would free those kidnapped.
Meanwhile, many of the victims were burned beyond recognition as the attackers set a locked dormitory ablaze, making it difficult to identify the dead and account for the missing.
Families wailed at a mortuary in Bwera, as the bodies of their loved ones were put into coffins and taken away for burial.
But for many others, there was no news of missing relatives. Many of the charred bodies were sent to the city of Fort Portal for DNA testing.
President Yoweri Museveni said on Saturday, June 18 that the army would track down “these evil people and they will pay for what they have done.”
Many were curious to know how the attackers managed to evade detection in a border region with a heavy military presence.
Similarly, Major General Dick Olum informed the AFP news agency that intelligence suggested the presence of the ADF in the area about two days before the attack, and an investigation would be needed to establish what went wrong.
