President Yoweri Museveni has accused the country’s intelligence apparatus for failing to detect and prevent attacks launched by rebels.
On the night of Friday 16th June, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel group operating from Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo crossed into Uganda and attacked Lhubiriha Secondary School, in Southwestern border town of Mpondwe, Kasese district.
According to details, Fourty-two (42) people, including 37 students, 4 members of the community, and 1 security guard were killed in the attack, while 6 students were abducted to carry food stolen from the school store, while 8 people remain in critical condition.
Twenty students were reportedly hacked with machetes, before the attackers threw a grenade into the dormitory, killing 17 other students, with some bodies burnt beyond recognition.
The attack came as a surprise as the Uganda People’s Defence Forces is currently in a joint operation with the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo against the ADF deep inside the Congolese territory.
President Museveni has blamed the attack on gross intelligence failure of his security agencies.
“In Kasese, that part of the country has been peaceful for a long time and those people were quite relaxed although there are still some gaps in intelligence, but all these are solvable,” Museveni said on Thursday while addressing newly recruited members of a government militia known as the Local Defence Unit Personnel.
Museveni added, “When we get a few mistakes like what happened in Somalia and Kasese, those who don’t know war start running around, panicking but i can tell you that the security of Uganda is very secure. There were some mistakes in Somalia and I was talking to commanders here about them. Anybody who disturbs us will pay a very big price”.
On May 26, al-Shabab fighters stormed a base housing African Union peacekeepers in Somalia and killed 137 soldiers of which 54 were Ugandan soldiers.
A week after the deadly attack, Museveni said, “our soldiers demonstrated remarkable resilience and reorganised themselves, resulting in the recapture of the base”.
The base is located in Bulamarer, 130 kilometres (80 miles) southwest of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
