Dozens of children are killed in an incident connected to Islamic State

The dormitories of a school in Uganda were set on fire by armed individuals allegedly affiliated with the Allied Democratic Forces.

Local police claim that on Friday, when terrorists thought to have ties to the Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL) terror group stormed a school in Uganda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, dozens of pupils were cruelly massacred.

At least 25 pupils were killed and eight more were critically injured in the attack, which was carried out by five assailants who were reportedly rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces. The attack occurred at the Lhubiriha Secondary School. A local grocery store was also ransacked.

Selevest Mapoze, director of the Mpondwe-Lhubiriha border district, told Anadolu Agency on Saturday that the death toll later rose to 41, with 38 of the dead being proven to be minors.

Military officials informed the BBC that some of the guys were hacked to death with machetes and some of the girls are thought to have been abducted while both male and female students were enrolled in the institution and many of them were living there. The number of pupils still missing is not yet known.

Images of the burning structures are said to have been shared on social media, and survivors claim that the perpetrators brutalized the students before blowing up the hostel.

The oldest national park on the African continent, Virunga National Park, was mentioned as the location of the assailants’ “hot pursuit” by police. It is well known that the ADF uses this park as a hideout.

The BBC said that the attack was the first against a school in Uganda in 25 years. Although it works largely in the DRC, the ADF has been implicated in a number of terrorist incidents since 2021, including suicide bombings in Kampala. In an effort to minimize the threat, the DRC has so allowed the Ugandan military to breach its border.

Although the more well-known terrorist network did not admit the ADF’s involvement with it until 2019, the ADF has purportedly been connected to IS since 2016.