Attack on Uganda border town kills 42, mostly students

Townspeople on Sunday began burying the victims of the massacre, including at least 38 students at a secondary school. The town of Mpondwe is near the border Uganda shares with eastern Congo. The killers hacked some of the students to death, shot others, and burned some of the bodies. Authorities believe the attackers also kidnapped at least six students.

Who conducted the attack? Authorities suspect that extremist rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces, which is affiliated with Islamic State, conducted the killings. The ADF has been accused of launching numerous attacks against civilians. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni called the attack “criminal, desperate, terrorist, and futile.”

Dig deeper: Read Onize Ohikere’s report in WORLD Tour about violence in nearby eastern Congo.