AU condemns Uganda school attack, urges regional action against terror groups

African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki. [Standard, file]

The African Union has condemned the heinous attack on a school in Uganda by suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, which left at least 41 students dead.

In a statement on Saturday, June 17, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, reaffirmed the union's unwavering solidarity with the Ugandan government and its citizens.

"The Chairperson expresses his sincere condolences to the loved ones of the victims and wishes a full recovery to the injured students," said Faki.

"We wish to reaffirm the African Union's continued and unwavering solidarity with the Ugandan government and people during this painful period of national loss," he added.

He called for regional efforts to address threats posed by terrorists and armed groups.

"The Chairperson reiterates the need for an urgent holistic regional approach to address the threat posed by all terrorist and armed groups to ensure regional security," he said.

Suspected ADF rebels attacked a school in a remote area of Uganda near the Congo border on Saturday, killing at least 41 people in a nighttime raid before fleeing across the porous frontier, according to authorities.

Among the victims were thirty-eight students who were in their dormitories during the attack.

The perpetrators, armed with guns and machetes, committed horrific acts of violence, resulting in some students being burned beyond recognition and others being shot or hacked to death.

The school is located in the frontier district of Kasese, about two kilometers (just over a mile) from the Congo border.

In addition to the 38 students, one guard and two residents of the local community in Mpondwe-Lhubiriha town were killed in the attack, as reported by Mayor Selevest Mapoze.

The rebels also abducted six students, who were forced to act as porters for looted food from the school's store, according to a statement from the Ugandan military.

Authorities have attributed the massacre at Lhubiriha Secondary School to the ADF, a shadowy extremist group that has been launching attacks from bases in volatile eastern Congo for years.