School Attacked and Many Butchered

 ISIS-linked rebel group attacks Ugandan school, killing dozens. Armed rebels attacked a school in western Uganda, killing at least 41 people, mostly students, and abducting six others, Ugandan officials have said.

Some were hacked to death with machetes while others died when their dormitories were set on fire, military spokesman Felix Kulayigye said.

Julius Isingoma"I smeared the blood of my dead colleagues in my mouth, ears and on my head so that the attackers would think I was dead," he said, when we met him at Bwera General Hospital in Kasese district.

About 20 members of the ISIS-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group attacked the Lhubirira secondary school late on Friday, according to Uganda’s military.

The school is situated along Uganda’s border with Congo in the town of Kasese, and educates children between the ages of 13 and 18. Of the dead, 39 were students and two were from the local community, local officials said.

Authorities were still trying to extinguish the fire by Saturday morning. The military suspects more dead bodies may be found, but said there was no one still alive trapped in the school.

According to Kulayigye, there had been 62 people in the school during the attack.

“We’re commiserating with the families, and the leadership of the UPDF (Ugandan Peoples’ Defense Forces) are on the ground and have been deployed to protect the place,” he added.

The United Nations condemned the attack. “Those responsible for this appalling act must be brought to justice,” a statement read.

Extending “heartfelt condolences” to victims and their families, Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for the immediate release of those abducted and reiterated “the importance of collective efforts to tackle cross border insecurity between Congo and Uganda and restore durable peace in the area.”

The spokesman for Uganda’s military operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Major Bilal Katamba, told CNN the military is pursuing the suspects in the DRC and believes they are headed towards the Virunga National Park.

Major Dick Olum, commander of the UPDF operation in eastern DRC, said the rebels had spent two days in the town – where they were led and shown around by local residents – before the killings.

“Everybody should be on the lookout,” he warned residents in Kasese.

“If you see someone you don’t recognize, have him arrested. Please identify the youth that led the ADF here,” he appealed.

Footage of the aftermath showed whole areas of the school cordoned off and armored military vehicles in the vicinity. Large crowds were also seen gathering on school premises.

Ugandan government officials led by State Minister for Higher Education John Muyingo visited the school on Saturday.

In a statement shared on Twitter, First Lady Janet Museveni said the government was “providing support for the bereaved families during this trying time.”

“On behalf of the Ugandan government… I extend heartfelt condolences to the families, students, staff of Lhubiliriha Secondary School and the broader community affected by this tragedy,” she said.

“We call upon everyone to offer prayers for the affected families and community while also urging vigilance to uphold the safety of our children in schools.”

“I remain confident that the UPDF, with divine guidance, will ensure those responsible face justice,” she added.

An eyewitness who lost three cousins in the brutal attack, said that the local mortuary is “very crowded” as victims rescued from the school continue to be treated.

“I knew my relatives were at school, so when I heard about the incident, very early in the morning we rushed to the hospital and we found their bodies there, and the mortuary was very crowded,” Clay Biromunane said.

Biromunane was in his bedroom around 300 meters away from the school when he heard gunfire erupt at around 10:40 p.m. local time.

“Up to now people are up and down looking for their relatives,” Biromunane said.

The 35-year-old said the community was “very much surprised” by the attack and said they had never experienced anything like it before.

Mapoze Slevest, Mayor of Mpondwe, similarly expressed surprise, telling reporters that Mpondwe “was a good community with no rebels.”

Based along the mountainous border between Uganda and the DRC, the ADF began fighting against the government after being founded in the mid-90s.

The group was sanctioned by the United States and the United Nations in 2014 for terrorist activities in the region, including attacks on children. The US Department of Treasury denounced the ADF “for targeting children in situations of armed conflict, including through killing, rape, abduction and forced displacement.” In January, the ADF was accused of detonating a bomb during a church service in the DRC, killing at least 12 worshipers.

On Sunday, Uganda began burying the victims of a brutal attack on a school.

The assailants are suspected of belonging to the Allied Democratic Forces – militants with ties to the Islamic State group.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said in a statement that their attack was “criminal, desperate, terrorist and futile.”

Most of the victims were students at Lhubiriha Secondar School, close to Uganda’s border with Congo. Forty-two people were killed. Eight people were wounded, but one of them has now died. Officials say they believe at least six students were abducted by the militants and taken into Congo.

Some villagers in the surrounding areas have moved away from their homes following the attack on the school.

The school attack is indicative of a growing trend throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where fragile states with weak security forces, porous borders, and an abundance of small arms and light weapons struggle to contain jihadist terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State. As entire regions have been overrun by terrorist and insurgent groups, the United States and Western countries are devoting fewer resources to counterterrorism in Africa, while Russia is using the private military company Wagner Group to fill the power vacuum in parts of the Sahel, Central Africa, and elsewhere on the continent.

Islamic State affiliates operating in Africa have become a major focus of the group’s post-“Caliphate” strategy, wherein once peripheral or marginal groups have increased the frequency of their attacks. Groups like Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Islamic State Greater Sahara (rebranded as Islamic State Sahel), and ISCAP have also enjoyed success in recruiting new members, capitalizing on grievances in these regions and leveraging the IS brand and propaganda apparatus. Thousands of jihadists are active in eastern Congo alone, where militants have beheaded civilians, burned churches, and carried out suicide attacks. According to the UN peacekeeping operation in the DRC (MONUSCO), the ADF was responsible for killing over 1,300 civilians in 2021 alone, and even managed to set off explosions in the Ugandan capital that year. The group has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Both Congolese and Ugandan security forces have been unable to contain the growing ISCAP threat, while the DRC is also plagued by conflict with other terrorist groups, including the March 23 Movement.

Within the broader constellation of IS affiliates, sub-Saharan Africa has been a region of substantial growth, and the center of gravity for jihadist terrorism more broadly. In Syria and Iraq, Islamic State fighters are struggling to mount serious offensives, have been deprived of territory, and face near-constant assault from various actors operating in the region, including U.S. special operations forces that have eliminated two successive IS leaders in the past year. As Islamic State’s presence and popularity have declined in areas including Libya, Yemen, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and Southeast Asia, that void has been filled by its African affiliates and the Afghanistan-based Islamic State Khorasan (ISK). Earlier this week, UN Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari said that “Africa has emerged as the key battleground for terrorism, with a major increase in the number of active groups operating on the continent.” He noted that political, economic, and social grievances, in addition to porous borders and “identity-based mobilization” have all put Africa at the forefront of terrorism and insurgent-related violence.

Perceived as being more locally and regionally focused than Islamic State core in Syria, Africa-based jihadist groups are often considered to be less threatening to Western security interests and homelands, and thus these threats are not considered a top priority for many Western capitals.

 As governments continue to move away from counterterrorism to dedicate greater resources and bandwidth to great power competition, the threat posed by terrorist groups in Africa will likely metastasize; attention further afield to South and Southeast Asia appears even more limited. These groups have taken advantage of permissive security environments to expand and rebuild. Over time, counterterror experts fear that groups active on the continent could switch focus and begin planning external operations outside of their areas of operation. ISWAP has been successful in positioning the organization as attractive to jihadists beyond Nigeria. 

Al-Qaeda-linked groups are also in flux. In 2019, Filipino authorities arrested Cholo Abdi Abdullah, a Kenyan al-Shabaab fighter who was planning to conduct a high-profile terrorist attack against the United States. Furthermore, these groups could also seek to recruit foreign fighters from beyond Africa to join their organizations, introducing fighters with diverse skill sets, expertise, and backgrounds. Scholars have also suggested that the men and boys currently in Northeast Syria, particularly those who may have escaped detention centers or are “floating” in the region, may also find themselves recruited for battlefields in Africa or South Asia if jihadist groups seek to boost their capacities and numbers.