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Uganda school attack: Dozens of pupils killed by militants linked to Islamic State group


Patience Atuhaire in Kampala & James Gregory in London - BBC News
Sun, June 18, 2023


Nearly 40 pupils have been killed at a school in western Uganda by rebels linked to the Islamic State group (IS).


Five militants attacked the Lhubiriha secondary school in Mpondwe at around 23:30 (20:30 GMT) on Friday.


They entered dormitories, setting fire and using machetes to kill and maim the pupils, officials said.


The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) - based in the Democratic Republic of Congo - have been blamed and a manhunt is under way.


More than 60 people are educated at the school, most of whom live there.


Uganda's information minister said 37 students were confirmed to have been killed, but did not give their ages.


Twenty of them were attacked with machetes and 17 of them burned to death, Chris Baryomunsi told the BBC.


The Ugandan army said the rebels had also killed a school guard and three members of the local community.


Survivors said the rebels threw a bomb into the dormitory after the machete attack. It is not clear if this resulted in a fire in the building which was reported earlier.


Six students were also abducted to carry food that the rebels stole from the school's stores, he added. The militants then returned across the border into the DR Congo.


Some of the bodies are said to have been badly burnt and DNA tests will need to be carried out to identify them.


Eight people remain in a critical condition after the attack.


UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the "appalling act" and called for those behind it to be brought to justice.


Soldiers are pursuing ADF insurgents towards the DR Congo's Virunga national park - which is home to rare species, including mountain gorillas.


Militias including the ADF also use the vast expanse, which borders Uganda and Rwanda, as a hideout.


"Our forces are pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted and destroy this group," defence spokesperson Felix Kulayigye said on Twitter.


The Ugandan army has also deployed helicopters to help track the rebel group over mountainous terrain.


The two neighbours have held joint military operations in the east of DR Congo to prevent attacks by the ADF.


Security forces had intelligence that rebels were in the border area on Congolese side for at least two days before Friday night's attack, Maj Gen Olum said.


But local residents have criticised the authorities for not being prepared for an attack.


"If they are telling us the borders are secure and security is tight, I want the security to tell us where they were when these killers came to kill our people," one resident told reporters.


The deadly episode follows last week's attack by suspected ADF fighters in a village in DR Congo near to the Ugandan border. More than 100 villagers fled to Uganda but have since returned.


The attack on the school, located less than 2km (1.25 miles) from Congolese border, is the first such attack on a Ugandan school in 25 years.


In June 1998, 80 students were burnt to death in their dormitories in an ADF attack on Kichwamba Technical Institute near the border of DR Congo. More than 100 students were abducted.


The group may target schools as a way of recruiting children, according to Richard Moncrieff, an expert in the region at the International Crisis Group. But they also do it for the shock value, he told the BBC.


"These are terrorist groups who want to make and impact through violence, they want to show that they are there, show that they are active to their colleagues and allies in Isis in other parts of the world," Mr Moncrieff said, using another acronym for IS.


The ADF was created in western Uganda in the 1990s and took up arms against long-serving President, Yoweri Museveni, alleging government persecution of Muslims.


Muslims make up almost 14% of the Ugandan population, according to official government figures, though the Ugandan Muslim Supreme Council estimates the figure is closer to 35%.


Some members of the Ugandan Muslim community say they face discrimination in public life, including in education and the workplace.


After defeat by the Ugandan army in 2001, the ADF relocated to North Kivu province in DR Congo.


The group's principal founder, Jamil Makulu, was arrested in Tanzania in 2015 and is in custody in a Ugandan prison.


ADF rebels have been operating from inside DR Congo for the past two decades.


Makulu's successor, Musa Seka Baluku, reportedly first pledged allegiance to IS in 2016, but it was not until April 2019 that the group first acknowledged its activity in the area.


IS is a group has been mostly defeated, though there are significant numbers of IS-affiliated militant groups across the Middle East and Africa.


After years of not operating openly in Uganda, the ADF was blamed for a series of attacks in late 2021 including suicide bombings in Uganda's capital Kampala.


Two Christians Killed in Church Burning in Uganda


Evangelist slashed in separate attack.
May 10, 2022 By Our East Africa Correspondent


NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Two Christians died when Muslim extremists on Thursday (May 5) set fire to a church building in southern Uganda, sources said.


Most of the Christians holding an all-night prayer vigil had left when the structure of Holy Healing Ministry International Church in the city of Jinja’s Mpumudde ward was set ablaze at about 4 a.m., said church Pastor George Kato.


“The fire weakened the church structure and forced it to collapse,” Pastor Kato told Morning Star News. “I managed to escape with other remaining few members, but two elderly members were trapped inside, and the fire burned them beyond recognition.”


As he came out of the church building, Pastor Kato said, he found jerry cans of gas near the door.


“I made an alarm while running away,” he said. “I saw three Muslims dressed in long Islamic attire taking off. I couldn’t identify them.”


Hardline area Muslims accusing the Christians of being too loud in their worship services and prayer meetings had told them many times to remove the church building, he said.


As the building burned, Pastor Kato called police who arrived quickly, but the wooden structure was already engulfed in flames.


One of the two church members who died was identified as Jonathan Kalyecheru, 70. The identity of the second victim was unclear. The bodies were taken to Jinja Regional Referral Hospital mortuary as police investigated.


Jinja is in Jinja District on the north shore of Lake Victoria, about 80 kilometers (49 miles) from Kampala, the capital.


Bishop Attacked


Near eastern Uganda’s Mbale town, hardline Muslims on April 28 intercepted a church leader and cut him with knives after he left an open-air evangelistic event where he had debated Muslims, sources said.


Bishop Amon Sadiiki was receiving treatment for wounds on his head, stomach and legs. He was ambushed after four days of debates with Muslims in Mbale.


“On the fourth day of the debate, 11 Muslims converted to Christianity,” an area contact said, adding that as the bishop left Mbale at about 8 p.m., many Muslims were shouting at him.


Believing Sadiiki might not be safe traveling alone, organizers of the event arranged for two Christians on motorcycles, Peter Wabukoma and Moses Werikhe, to escort him. On the Mugiti-Kabwangasi road, they noticed two motorcycles with three riders following them, who then passed by brandishing knives and shouting the jihadist slogan, “Allahu Akbar [God is greater],” the source said.


The men jumped off their motorcycles, stopped them and immediately began hitting and cutting Sadiiki before he could be defended, one of the escorts said.


“We made a loud alarm shouting for help for the bishop needing rescue, for he was at the point of death, which brought the attention of some nearby students from Mugiti High School, a Christian-founded school, and the school management managed to chase the attackers away, but the bishop was seriously injured,” Wabukoma said. “The bishop’s stomach, head and legs were cut with sharp knives, and he lost a lot of blood.”


Sources said Sadiiki was on a Muslim “wanted list” because he left Islam to put his faith in Christ, built a church in the middle of a predominantly Muslim village and carried out healing services that led many Muslims to Christ. He was also targeted, residents said, because he organised an evangelistic event in Mbale, considered a Muslim stronghold, during the Islamic month of Ramadan at which many Muslims embraced Christianity.


Sadiiki received first aid from the high school nurse, who bound his wounds, while he waited for a rescue team called from Mbale. The team arrived at about 10:45 p.m. and took Sadiiki to a private clinic in Mbale.


“The bishop’s condition is stable, but he will need another two weeks in the hospital because he suffered a deep cut on the head,” the contact said.


Church leaders planned to file a police report when the bishop is discharged from the hospital.


On May 3, Muslim extremists attacked his son, 21-year-old Frank Amon Sadiiki, as he returned home from taking food to his father at the hospital, the area contact said.


“While on his way back on a motorbike, two people stopped him at around 8 p.m. and then hit him with an object on his legs,” the source said. “Immediately a vehicle appeared with bright lights, and the attackers fled.”


Frank Sadiiki was rushed to a nearby clinic for treatment for cuts on his legs.


The bishop told Morning Star News that he and his family were unsafe and need prayer.


The assaults were the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.


Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.


Uganda's Kampala bombings: Muslim cleric accused of jihadist links shot dead


By Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala
18 November, 2021


Security forces in Uganda have shot dead a Muslim cleric accused of working with an armed group linked to suicide bombings in the capital Kampala.


Officials said Sheikh Muhammad Abas Kirevu had recruited for cells run by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) - rebels who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.


He was killed just outside Kampala.


At least four people were killed by attackers on motorbikes who blew themselves up in the city on Tuesday.


The Islamist militant ADF was formed in Uganda in the 1990s but is now based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since pledging allegiance to IS in 2019, it has increasingly carried out attacks in the group's name.


Twenty-one people have been arrested since Tuesday's attack, in what police have described as the dismantling of ADF terrorist cells in Kampala and across the country.


Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said 13 suspects, including several children, were intercepted while trying to cross the border into DR Congo.


On Wednesday, four suspected ADF operatives were killed near the border.


A manhunt is also under way for another cleric, Sheikh Suleiman Nsubuga, who is accused of training terrorists, radicalising potential recruits, and providing materials to make improvised explosive devices.


Tuesday's attack was the latest in a number of recent bomb explosions in Kampala.


Last month, a 20-year-old waitress was killed after a device, left in a shopping bag, detonated in a bar in the city. Days later several people were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a bus near Kampala. Police say both were linked to the ADF.


The bombings on Tuesday marked the biggest attack the ADF has been linked to in Uganda since establishing relations with IS.



Congo army attacks Ugandan Islamist rebels in lawless east


BY KENNY KATOMBE AND CHRISPIN MVANO
BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo Fri Jan 17, 2014 8:26am EST

(Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo forces attacked Ugandan Islamist rebels in the lawless east on Friday, launching a U.N.-backed offensive to clear insurgents from the mineral-rich zone.


Reuters correspondents outside the town of Beni, in North Kivu province, heard heavy gunfire as government troops moved in on positions held by ADF-NALU rebels who have been based in Congo for years and are seen as a major obstacle to peace.


Another rebel movement, M23, that had operated to the south of Beni was defeated late last year, highlighting how Kinshasa and U.N. forces have begun to take the fight to gunmen that have plagued eastern Congo for nearly two decades.


"The Congolese army has launched operations against ADF-NALU in Beni and as usual (U.N. troops) will support the army to neutralize these rebels, who have been very active recently in this zone," said U.N. forces spokesman Colonel Felix Basse.


A Reuters reporter said that Tanzanian troops from a specialist U.N. "Intervention Brigade", which is mandated to go after Congolese rebel groups, had deployed near Beni but it was unclear if they had joined the fighting.


ADF-NALU is an alliance of groups opposed to the Ugandan government that has operated from bases in eastern Congo since the mid-2000s, undermining Kinshasa's grip on the area and handing Uganda a pretext for intervening there.


Earlier this week, Ugandan and Congolese army officers held a high-level planning meeting in Beni but Ugandan officials were not immediately available for comment on Friday.


Kampala has previously said it would share intelligence and capture fleeing rebels but not intervene directly in operations on the ground in Congo.


Congo and Uganda have long had rocky relations and U.N. experts have accused Kampala and fellow neighbor Rwanda of backing M23. Both nations denied the charges.


ADF-NALU has been blamed for a spate of recent attacks and kidnappings around Beni, including the deaths of some 40 civilians in an attack on Christmas Day.


The rebel group is believed to number up to 1,400 fighters and has abducted about 300 Congolese civilians over the past year, according to a U.N. report.


Having helped the Congolese army vanquish M23, the 3,000-strong U.N. Intervention Brigade had been widely expected to turn its attention on ADF-NALU and Rwandan Hutu FDLR rebels who are also roaming Congo's east.


The Ugandan government has said ADF-NALU is allied with Somalia's al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab movement but analysts say the nature of these ties is not clear, despite the ADF-NALU's clear Islamist ideology.


Museveni warns Muslims on violence


By MONITOR TEAM
Posted  Saturday, April 28  2012

President Museveni yesterday warn Muslims against violence and preaching hatred just over 24 hours after several Muslim youth had been engaged by anti-riot police in the city.


Speaking specifically to the Kibuli mosque-based faction allied to Mufti Zubair Kayongo, Museveni warned those who wanted to disrupt Muslim elections that was slated for Friday, to stay away from the exercise if they did not want them.


“There is nowhere in the law where we can stop them from holding elections. To stop them is impossible and we would create more problems. Let those who want to elect go ahead. I urge you, especially Sheik Nuhu Muzaata not to threaten people but to stick to issues,” he said at State House on Friday while meeting a delegation of about 20 Muslim leaders including Mufti Kayongo.


Museveni’s meeting came hot on the heels of Thursday street battles between anti-riot police and Muslim youths from the Kibuli-based faction that matched through Kampala streets intending to ‘overthrow’ Mufti Mubajje at Gaddafi National Mosque, the seat of the Islamic faith in the country.


The youth are protesting the countrywide election, to choose representatives to the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council general assembly. It however went on amid fear of violence.

At Gaddafi National Mosque, which is the official seat of the Islamic faith, a small fraction of voters turned out to vote. Out of 250 registered voters at the mosque, less than 60 were present. Mr Nasser Magezi, 28 sailed through unopposed to represent Gaddafi mosque at the county level.


“That is a waste of time. I vote and get what?,” said Mr Musa Dhikusoka after attending prayers at Masjid Taqwa in Jinja Town where Hussein Juma and Said Saleh Kabalagala were elected to represent the mosque. The turn-out countrywide was reportedly low as many voters stayed away fearing violence.


On Thursday, while preaching to faithful at the Kibuli mosque, Hajj Muhammad Kisambira, the secretary general for the Kibuli-based faction, accused Museveni of colluding with Mufti Shaban Mubajje to disorganise the Muslim community in the country.


“It is said Idi Amin was a murderer but he managed to streamline Muslims. Mr. Obote also had his weaknesses but he did not suppress Muslims the way Mr Museveni has done in his last 26-year-old regime. We are calling on all Muslims in Uganda who care about their religion to redeem it. We are warning Museveni government that should these elections goes on as planned, that will be the spark for his downfall,” he warned.


A reconciliatory Museveni fired back cautioning religious leaders who use their pulpits to intimidate and bark at political leaders in public.


“Why this approach when you can solve issues amicably. Like Archbishop Lwanga going to Church and telling us how to run a country, what would happen if I did the same,” he said.


He also said the government is still investigating the death of Sheikh Abdukarim Sentamu who was shot dead in Kampala last week hinting that investigations so far show that the late was in touch with Jamil Mukulu on phone. Mukulu is currently in the DRC, according the President.
 Another meeting between Museveni and the Muslim leaders is scheduled for May 4.



Muslims Threaten War Over Domestic Bill

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
May 6, 2005
Posted to the web May 5, 2005

By Mercy Nalugo
Kampala

 

Muslims have threatened a jihad (religious war) if Parliament passes the Domestic Relations Bill (DRB) in its current form.

 

The Muslims are opposed to a clause in the Bill, which requires a man to seek consent of his first wife before marrying a second one.

 

The Vice Chairman of the Uganda Muslim Youth Assembly (UMWV), Imam Idd Kasozi, flanked by the UMWV Director, Hajji Abbas Kiyimba, said nobody should provoke Muslims because they would fight back (Muslims will fight against being decent human beings).

 

"We are issuing a warning that if some members keep on pushing Muslims to the wall, they would rebound and we do not want this to happen. But we have to fight for the Muslim principles," Kiyimba said.

 

He was presenting a paper on the Domestic Relations Bill in a one-day workshop organised by the Uganda Network on Law, Ethics and HIV/Aids (Uganet) and the Uganda Muslim Women Vision at Tal Cottages in Lubaga, Kampala. "Our answer to the DRB is that it should be amended to accommodate our concerns. We are prepared to fight this battle till the end," Kiyimba said. Kasozi said the fight against the DRB could take the highest level, which is a jihad.

 

The remarks come a day after the pro-DRB advocates marched through the city streets demonstrating against President Yoweri Museveni's recent directive that the debate on the Bill be suspended until all stakeholders are consulted.

 

In March Muslims demonstrated against the DRB especially the clause that requires a man to obtain consent from his first wife before marrying another and another provision for scrapping of matrimonial gifts (bride-price).

 

Former Attorney General Mr Abu Mayanja concurred with Kiyimba. "Let Muslims be governed by Muslim (oppressive) laws, Christians by their laws and other religious beliefs," Mayanja said.

 

Copyright © 2005 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

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