The World Briefly

June 19, 2023

No Quarter

Uganda

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Suspected militants killed 42 people – mostly students – at a school in western Uganda over the weekend, the latest bout of violence from rebel groups operating near Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sky News reported.

Ugandan authorities said the death toll included 38 students, adding that the attackers set the school on fire. Six other students were kidnapped by the militants.

Police believe that rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militant group were behind the attack in the town of Mpownde, near the border with the DRC. Ugandan troops tracked the attackers into the DRC’s Virunga National Park, with military representatives saying they “are pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted.”

The Mpownde attack prompted condemnation from Ugandan politicians and international organizations, the Washington Post noted.

The attack is just the latest violence by the ADF, which was created in the early 1990s by Ugandan Muslims opposing the rule of President Yoweri Museveni.

Since its founding, the group has conducted a series of deadly attacks across Uganda, including a 1998 massacre that killed 80 students in the west of the country.

The Ugandan military later forced the ADF to flee to the DRC, where many armed groups are able to operate because the central government has limited control there.

In 2018, the ADF established ties with Islamic State, prompting the United States to designate the group as a foreign terrorist organization in 2021.

Ugandan authorities have long vowed to track down ADF militants, even outside the country’s borders. In 2021, Uganda launched joint air and artillery strikes against the militants in the DRC.

This story originally appeared in the June 19, 2023 newsletter, Hot Stuff.