He uganda army has confirmed the existence of at least 37 deaths, eight wounded and six missing in an attack carried out by militias of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) against a Kasese School, in the west of the African country.

The incident, according to the military statement, occurred around 11:30 p.m. on Friday at the Mpondwe Lhubiriha private secondary school in this border town with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the main sphere of activity of this militia, one of the most violent of the continent, which had its origins, however, on Ugandan soil.

The Army has not specified how many of the deceased are students, but an initial balance from the Police estimated the dead schoolchildren in 25, along with another 20 who were initially believed to have been kidnapped, although the Army has had to regret the subsequent discovery of some of their lifeless bodies. The security forces, however, have found three survivors unharmed from the attack.

Both the Army and the police spokesman, Fred Enanga, have also confirmed eight injured who are in critical condition and that they are receiving medical attention at the Bwera hospital, while the Army and Police have launched a search and capture operation in the Virunga National Park, the escape route of the militiamen responsible for the attack, which the Army estimates are five individuals , according to his note published on his Twitter account.

In fact, air and ground forces have already reached the Congolese side of the park, where a DRC Army patrol will join the operation, as confirmed by the head of the Ugandan Army in joint operations, General Dick Olum. According to Army estimates, the attackers They came from Kasindi Port, a lakeside village on Lake Edward, on the border with Uganda, 18 km from the Kasindi border.

The Ugandan general asks the border towns so that they are alert in all directions and collaborate with the security services to neutralize these rebels. The ADF, created in the 1990s and accused of the massacres of thousands of civilians, was subject to a split in 2019 after its leader swore allegiance to the jihadist group Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), under whose banner it operates. since then. The United Nations attributes to them more than 1,200 civilian murders only in 2021.