A terrorist cell linked to the Islamic State (IS) has killed about 40 secondary school students in a village in western Uganda. The jihadists belong to the Allied Democratic Forces, a group fighting the ultra-Christian regime of President Yoweri Museveni.
At half past twelve on Friday, five terrorists attacked the Lhubirira school, a secondary education center in Mpondwe, a town located just two kilometers from the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The school has about 60 students, almost all of them are boarders.
The terrorists burned the mattresses of the students while they were sleeping. They killed them with a machete and detonated several bombs inside the residences.
Yesterday, there were eight survivors in critical condition. The jihadists took six students, who they will force to join their gang, the Democratic Allied Forces (FAD).
This group has committed massive killings since it was formed more than 20 years ago. It operates in the mountainous area of ??Rwenzori, one of the most important wildlife sanctuaries in Africa. They also take refuge in Virunga, the oldest park in Africa and the one with the most biodiversity, located right on the border with the DRC.
The FAD have been fighting on behalf of the Islamic State for years. Since 2019 they have been their franchise in this Great Lakes area.
Last week they attacked a border town and more than a hundred residents had to flee for their lives. In April, the FAD killed around twenty people in an attack on another town in the region.
In 1988 the FAD committed their worst massacre: they murdered 80 students of the Technical Institute of Kichwamba and kidnapped a hundred of them.
This is their strategy. Mass killings to terrorize the population and forcibly recruit young men.
The Ugandan army says it defeated the FAD in 2001. The guerrillas, however, returned to the Virunga and Rwenzori jungles.
Like so many other armed groups in the area, they survive, in large part, because the State does not control the territory and corruption is general. Military operations achieve Pyrrhic victories, but the background situation never changes.
The five Mpondwe terrorists spent several days in the village planning the attack. Neighbors saw them, but the authorities were unable to take any preventive measures.
Uganda is a military dictatorship and the army has many open internal fronts. It must suppress political dissent and, above all, the army, which has the advantage of the terrain and the impotence of the local population. Now, he also has to make sure there are no homosexuals. It is forbidden and punishable by death.
Uganda has, according to official data, 14% Muslims, although the Supreme Muslim Council says they are more than double, close to 35%. The more ultra-Christian the dictatorship of General Museveni becomes, the more cornered the Muslim minority is. The Supreme Council denounces that they are second-class citizens and suffer daily discrimination in education and work.
