Uganda ADF school attack. How Islamic State has expanded into Central Africa -BBC News

Report at BBC News Africa
By Ashley Lime & Anne Okumu
BBC News, Mpondwe
Dated Sunday 18 June 2023 - full copy:

Uganda ADF school attack: 'Gospel songs interrupted by screaming'

Image caption,

Mary Masika, who lives opposite the school says she would often hear the students singing before bedtime

Pupils in Uganda were singing gospel songs before a deadly attack by Islamist militants on Friday, a woman who lives opposite the school says.

"Then I heard screaming," Mary Masika told the BBC. The vicious attack in Mpondwe left about 40 people dead.

Islamic State-linked militants have been blamed for the attack.

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) was created in the 1990s and took up arms against President Yoweri Museveni, alleging persecution of Muslims.

They are now largely based in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary School attacked on Friday is close to the border.

Ms Masika says she and other residents have been left terrified by the attack which lasted about 90 minutes.

Warning: Contains details some readers may find distressing

"I have been unable to eat or sleep since then," she told the BBC in Swahili.

The students usually sing before bedtime - and at first she and her daughter thought the noise that interrupted their songs at around 22:00 (20:00 GMT) suggested that they were having a bit of fun.

But it soon became clear that something horrific was under way at the school, which had around 60 boarders living in a small compound.

ADF rebels had entered dormitories, setting fire to them and using machetes to kill and maim students.

One family in Mpondwe held the funerals on Sunday for a father and son killed in the attack - 47-year-old security guard Elphanas Mbusa and 17-year-old Masereka Elton.

Image caption,

Hurubana Kimadi Onesmus lost his son, a school watchman, and at least one of his grandsons - it is not clear if the other has been kidnapped

Their other son, 15-year-old Brian Muhindo who was also attending the school, is missing. They do not know if he is among the six boys kidnapped or one of those whose bodies cannot be identified because they have been so badly burned.

Hurubana Kimadi Onesmus told the BBC he found it difficult to understand how the attackers were able to infiltrate the school where his son, the security guard, worked and where his grandsons were studying.

"There is a very heavy military presence in the area," the 69-year-old said.

Image caption,

The BBC team were given a few minutes to photograph the scene at school in Mpondwe

Now there is a lot of security at the school - and the BBC team was given only a few minutes to take some photos of the burnt buildings.

It was a devastating and upsetting scene.

Lots of dried blood is still on the ground outside the girls' dormitory - they had been attacked with machetes and others shot dead as they ran away.

The boys' dormitory had been locked - they had either refused to open it to the rebels or they were locked inside by them. The militants poured fuel on the building and set it alight.

Inside, the smell of death is unmistakeable - beds have been reduced to wire mesh with pieces of flesh still stuck to them.

Image caption,

It is not clear if the doors of the boys' dormitory was locked by those inside or the rebels

Ms Masika said towards the end of the attack, at around 23:30, she heard one of the assailants talking at her gate and asking a fellow fighter if "the job was done".

They were talking in Swahili - the lingua franca in the region - and afterwards began shouting "Allahu Akbar", meaning "God is greatest".

She said after these chants one of them added: "We have succeeded in destabilising Museveni's country."

IMAGE SOURCE, 

AFP

Image caption,

Several funerals were held on Sunday for those killed in the attack

In response, President Museveni vowed to send more troops to Rwenzori Mountains, which are along the border between Uganda and the DR Congo, saying: "Their action... the desperate, cowardly, terrorist action... will not save them."

The area around Mpondwe seems to be a mix of Christians and Muslims. Some of those attending the funerals on Sunday were dressed in traditional Muslim attire.

Other funerals for the pupils killed in the attack were held in villages across the region, with most people dumbfounded and pained by the brutality of the assault.

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View original: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65945814

[Ends]

David Blair's report from Witto, Western Equatoria, S. Sudan: LRA targets children of Sudan

Here is a long awaited report from The Daily Telegraph's Africa correspondent David Blair. I have lost count of the number of times over the past year that I wondered about his lack of reporting on Africa and even worried that he might be ill. So, it was a wonderful surprise for me a few minutes ago to find the following report filed from South Sudan's Western Equatoria! Fingers crossed that he remains in the region to report more on what is really going on. On Monday morning (10 August 2009) I published news at Sudan Watch about southern Sudan where a humanitarian disaster more serious than that in Darfur, western Sudan is unfolding.

From The Daily Telegraph
Lord's Resistance Army targets children of Sudan
By David Blair in Witto, Western Equatoria province, South Sudan
Published: 7:00AM BST Monday 10 Aug 2009

The Lord's Resistance Army, which specialises in abducting and murdering the young, has turned on a new and pitifully vulnerable target: the children of southern Sudan, one of Africa's most isolated and troubled regions.



Local people call LRA fighters the "ton-tong", meaning "machete", because this is their chosen weapon for murdering victims Photo: GETTY

The LRA, which emerged in neighbouring Uganda and has kidnapped tens of thousands of children during two decades of guerrilla war, is now striking across a vast area of bush and plain along Sudan's south-western frontier.

These raids on defenceless villages, usually mounted by small groups of rebels searching for children to abduct and food to steal, have forced more than 55,000 people to flee their homes. Western Equatoria province has been worst hit, with scores of villages abandoned and new refugee camps springing up.

Local people call LRA fighters the "ton-tong", meaning "machete", because this is their chosen weapon for murdering victims.

Mary Anja, who does not know her age but looks about 30, lived in Diko district until the LRA attacked her village. Knowing that the rebels were hunting for children, local people tried to evacuate as many as possible, along with their mothers, on two tractors.

Mrs Anja gathered her three infant sons and climbed onto one vehicle's trailer. Meanwhile, her daughter, Phoebe, who is about 12, boarded the second tractor.

But this tiny convoy drove straight into an LRA ambush. "The ton-tong fired bullets in the air, then they shot out the tyres of the tractor," said Mrs Anja. "When people tried to jump out, they shot at the people." As the terrified women and children tried to flee, one baby boy, less than a year old, was shot dead in the arms of his mother. Another woman was wounded in the leg, while a Sudanese soldier, who had tried to protect the convoy, died in a hail of bullets.

Mrs Anja managed to flee with her three sons. As she ran, she knew nothing of the fate of Phoebe, travelling on the second tractor. "I was thinking 'Phoebe is not here'. I started crying while I ran," said Mrs Anja.

By this time, Phoebe was already in the hands of the LRA. The guerrillas surrounded her tractor, firing in the air and singling out Phoebe along with five other girls and one boy. "They surrounded us. We couldn't run and then they said 'sit down'. One of the rebels tied us up," said Phoebe.

The captives were led away into the bush. For the next three days, Phoebe was forced to march for 18 hours at a time. "If you don't walk fast enough, you are beaten with sticks," she remembered. "I was thinking, 'I may be killed like those who have been killed by the ton-tong before'. And I asked myself 'what has happened to my mother and my brothers'?"

Phoebe could not have known that her family was safe. They had managed to reach another village, from where Mrs Anja and her sons were brought to a refugee camp at Witto, some 50 miles away.

Shortly before dawn on the fourth day of the march, Phoebe and three other girls managed to slip away as their captors slept. For the next 12 days, they walked through the bush, surviving on river water and wild berries, until they reached the town of Tore Wandi.

Phoebe, emaciated and dehydrated, was taken to hospital, where her mother eventually found her. Today, she has recovered and the family lives in Witto camp, where Oxfam provides sanitation and basic essentials for about 500 refugees.

They cannot understand why they have become the LRA's latest targets. This nihilist movement, which emerged in Northern Uganda more than 20 years ago, has no coherent aim. Its psychotic leader, Joseph Kony, claims to be a prophet and says that he wants to rule Uganda according to the Ten Commandments.

But Kony's rebellion has no purpose save murder, so no-one joins him voluntarily. Hence the LRA must abduct children, who are then brainwashed into becoming soldiers and sent to kidnap more young recruits. In this brutal fashion, the LRA constantly replenishes its ranks.

Uganda has managed to expel the rebels from its territory with a series of offensives. But the LRA has scattered across a new killing ground, covering Sudan's borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

No-one can tell how many children have disappeared in this vast area. Joseph Ngere Paciko, the deputy governor of Western Equatoria, has recorded 250 abductions in his province alone.

"There have also been cases in far-away villages, where we have no access, so the real number is certainly higher," he said. "Our people don't understand why this is happening. Why should the LRA come and kill our people every day?"