Distraught families gathered at a mortuary in western Uganda on Sunday for any news of their loved ones after dozens of students were killed in an attack by a rebel group and many others went missing. Officials say at least 41 people, 38 of them 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. Victims were hacked, shot and burned to death in the attack on Lhubiriha Secondary School, leaving Uganda shocked and drawing condemnation from around the globe. The army and the police have blamed the Allied Democratic Front (ADF) armed group for the attack. The attackers abducted six people as they fled. The military said it was pursuing the attackers and would free those kidnapped. questions have been raised about how the attackers managed to evade detection in a border region with a heavy military presence. Major General Dick Olum told the AFP news agency that intelligence suggested the presence of the ADF in the area at least two days before the attack, and an investigation would be needed to establish what went wrong.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA