Uganda says 20 ‘collaborators’ held over school attack

A woman mourns during the funeral of Florence Masika and Zakayo Masereka in Mpondwe on June 18, 2023. Florence and Zakayo have been killed near the border with the Democratic republic of Congo by fleeing assaliants who the authorities believe to belong to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia based in DR Congo. – Grieving families prepared to bury their dead in western Uganda on Sunday while others desperately searched for loved ones still missing after militants killed dozens of students in a school attack. Officials say at least 41 people, mostly students, were massacred on Friday in the worst attack of its kind in Uganda since 2010. Victims were hacked, shot and burned in the late-night raid on Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe, which lies less than two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo by Stuart Tibaweswa / AFP)

Agence France-Presse

Ugandan police said Monday that 20 people had been arrested for suspected collaboration with the notorious militia group blamed for last week’s attack on a school near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Twenty arrests have been made of suspected collaborators, suspected ADF collaborators,” police spokesman Fred Enanga told a press conference, referring to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) based in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“We also have the head teacher and the director of school as part of our inquiries. They need to give us answers to certain questions,” he added, without making clear if they had been arrested.

Enanga said the death toll from the grisly raid on the Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe in a remote area of western Uganda late on Friday was 42, including 37 students.

Another six people were injured and remain in hospital, he added. – gb

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