Islamic State Terrorists attack secondary school in Uganda, kill 37 students and abduct others

No fewer than 37 students were killed when militants linked to Islamic State attacked a private secondary school in Mpondwe town, Uganda on Friday, June 16. 

The terrorists also abducted at least six people, according to local media reports.

The victims included the students, one guard and two members of the local community who were killed outside the school, Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Mayor Selevest Mapoze told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Mapoze said that while some of the students suffered fatal burns when the rebels set fire to a dormitory, others were shot or hacked to death with machetes.

Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces (UPDF) spokesman, Felix Kulayigye, in a statement said: “Unfortunately, 37 bodies have been discovered and conveyed to Bwera hospital mortuary.

Eight people were injured while six others were kidnapped and taken by the attackers toward Virunga National Park, which straddles the DR Congo border.” 

Police earlier blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Ugandan group based in eastern DRC that has pledged allegiance to the ISIL (ISIS) group, for the attack. They said earlier that 25 bodies were recovered and eight victims, who remained in critical conditions, were transferred to Bwera Hospital.

National police spokesman Fred Enanga said “a dormitory was burnt and food store looted” in the attack on the privately owned school located in the Ugandan district of Kasese, about two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the DRC border.

Enanga said the army and police units were in “hot pursuit” of the attackers who fled in the direction of Virunga National Park over the border into the DRC.