Uganda cuffs 20 suspected militiamen over horrific school massacre

Twenty people had been reported arrested by Ugandan police for suspected collaboration with the notorious militia group blamed for last Friday’s (16 June) horrific attack on a school near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Uganda reels from its deadliest attack in more than a decade after the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a rebel group that has pledged allegiance to ISIS, killed 41 civilians, including 37 students, in border town of Mpondwe. “Twenty arrests have been made of suspected collaborators, suspected ADF collaborators,” a police spokesman told the media.

Those arrested included the head teacher and the director of the Lhubiriha Secondary School that came under attack, whereby the oldest among the victims so far identified was a 95-year-old woman and the youngest a 12-year-old girl, the police spokesman added, describing the attack on innocent children as “barbaric, is inhumane and of course constitutes crimes against humanity.”

The youngsters were hacked with machetes, shot and burned to death in their dormitories in horrific killings that have drawn global condemnation.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni promised to hunt the assailants “into extinction” adding that “their action – the desperate, cowardly, terrorist action – will not save them.”

Pope Francis offered a prayer on Sunday (18 June) for “the young student victims of the brutal attack” that has shocked Uganda and drawn international condemnation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it “an appalling act,” while the United States, a close ally of Uganda, and the African Union also condemned the bloodshed. It was the deadliest attack in Uganda since twin bombings in Kampala in 2010 killed 76 people in a strike claimed by the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab group.