Ugandan police say they have arrested 20 suspects believed of involvement in last Friday's school attack that killed 42 people, mostly students, in the country's west.
Those arrested are suspected of collaborating with Islamist militants responsible for the attack at Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"They are "suspected ADF collaborators," police spokesman Fred Enanga said, referring to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) based in the DRC.
Those arrested included the school's head teacher and the director.
Horrific attack
Police say 37 students were among those killed, the youngest being a 12-year-old girl. The oldest among the victims so far identified was a 95-year-old woman.
Human rights worker Wilson Bwambale, who visited the scene the morning after the attack, told RFI of scenes of horror.
“The police had cordoned off the dormitory because it was on fire. The bodies were still burning inside. It was horrible, because the smell of burning flesh was still in the air and the roof had collapsed."
Another six people were injured and remain in hospital.
The victims were hacked with machetes, shot and burned to death in their dormitories in horrific killings that have drawn global condemnation.
"An attack on innocent children is barbaric, inhumane and of course constitutes crimes against humanity," Enanga said.
VIDEO: 🇺🇬 Brutal attack on Ugandan secondary school kills at least 41
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) June 19, 2023
Mostly students were killed during the attack on a secondary school in western Uganda on June 16, authorities said, blaming the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia based in DR Congo pic.twitter.com/KVinQ4eL5E
Abductions
Between five and seven people were adducted during the attack. Authorities say 15 people from the community, including five girls, are still missing.
Grief-stricken Ugandans started burying the victims on Sunday and Monday, while other families were still desperately looking for news of their loved ones or waiting for DNA tests on some of the students burnt beyond recognition.
"We are not sure our children are among those abducted or burnt beyond recognition", one guardian of a missing student told AFP.
"We are distressed, maybe the government will give us an answer soon and we are praying."
Islamist terrorists
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday vowed to hunt the militants "into extinction".
Ugandan authorities are pursuing the assailants who fled back towards the porous DRC border with their abductees, moved back into eastern DRC, where they are based.
The attack is Uganda's deadliest since 2010.
The ADF are an armed group historically linked to predominantly Muslim Ugandan rebels opposed to Museveni. They have been blamed for thousands of civilian deaths in the DRC since the 1990s.
UN experts estimate that the Islamic State group has provided financial support to the ADF since at least 2019.
The IS describes the ADF as its regional affiliate, the Islamic State Central Africa Province.
(with wires)
