ADF attackers were directed to Kasese school by young boy – Police

KAMPALA, UGANDA: Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga said on Monday that the suspected ADF rebels who raided Lhubirira Secondary School in Mpondwe in the June 16 attack were led to the school by a young boy.

According to Enanga, investigation carried out so far has indicated that the group of killers mostly between 20-30 in number crossed into the country and interfaced with the young boy along the way whom they asked for directions to their target, about 1.5km from the border.

“Our investigations have indicated that on a tragic day after 10 pm that night, a group of between 20 to 35 ADF rebel fighters crossed into Uganda through a crossing point at Duduma along the border with DRC. It is from there that they approached the school with the guidance of a young boy, according to credible witnesses,” SCP Enanga told journalists in a press briefing at Naguru Police Headquarters.

The police spokesman explained that according to fresh details that has emerged, the ADF rebels on reaching the school first hit the watchman with a hammer on the head and divided themselves into two groups that attacked the two dormitories simultaneously.

“The group divided themselves and concurrently raided the two dormitories, some of whom were revising. They got the female dormitory still open and butchered the girl victims with knives, pic axes, hoes and hammers to kill 19 students,” Enanga said.

He added that the first responder of the attack was a boda boda rider identified as Julius Muhindo who was riding toward Nyabugando and came across a small roadblock as the rebels fired towards his direction.

This prompted him to abandon the motorcycle and return to where he was coming from. He went and mobilized his colleagues to attack the roadblock suspecting that these could be highway robbers.

“These then alerted the defence secretary who also called the OC station and DPC Mpondwe dispatched two patrol cars with 16 personnel. They also got in touch with Maj Kaddu, the second in command of the 5th Mountain Battalion who mobilized his team to the scene.”

According to Enanga, the security teams scanned through the entire school but by this time, the attackers had already done harm and left.

Enanga however dismissed as untrue, reports that security slept on the job and failed to respond to the attack in time.

“It is therefore not true that our officers delayed to respond after getting information about the attack. This matter should not be politicised. We want to reiterate that we are trained to move towards gun fire and like we have done in many foiled terror attacks, we have never been intimidated by these attacks,” Enanga said.

In a related development, Maj Gen Dick Olum, the Commander in charge of Operation Shujaa tasked with hunting for the suspected ADF behind the Kasese school attack has said six rebels have so been killed and five guns recovered.

The UPDF Maj Gen explained that three of the guns were recovered two days after the attack on June 16. 43 people, mainly students, were killed during the attack that occurred in the night.

“We exchanged gunfire with them [ADF] shortly after that incident and on Wednesday we killed about six of them, that is the group commanded by Abua-kasi. The good thing is that Maj Mbauta [Levy], the son of the soil (Kasese), is the one pursuing those ADF rebels to bring those children home,” he said.

Maj Gen Olum who was meeting Defence Minister Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja on Friday in Kasese said that one of the fire exchanges happened at the two rivers of Talia and Mwalika in the Democratic Republic of Congo.