Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has condemned the Friday attack at Lhubihira Secondary School by suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels.
In a statement on Sunday, Museveni condoled with the families of 37 students who lost their lives, assuring the nation that the identity of the criminal gang will be revealed.
This is as military and police report that the attackers had also abducted six students and fled towards the Virunga National Park across the border.
The president demonstrated their vicious attempts to stop the operation of the terrorists with active collaboration with the Congo government.
“This new atrocity by the elements of the ADF is criminal, desperate, terrorist and futile. Since Operation Shujja started, the Congo Army and our Army have put a lot of pressure on ADF who had turned that area into their territory for almost 20 years,” Museveni said.
He said the group is believed to have set camp on the West and South side of the Ruwenzori Mountain causing havoc to the community around the vicinity.
“They were mining in the area, harvesting People’s cocoa and selling it as their own, collecting taxes, etc. In their ignorance, they also thought that the forests in the area were a protection for them,” read part of the statement.
Museveni added that Uganda applied modern ways of technology in doing an unsuspecting surveillance to monitor the activities of the terrorists before directing an ambush.
“As a consequence of the eyes in the sky and long distance deadly fire, followed by infantry troops on the ground, two things have happened. In the huge area west of the Rwenzori, the terrorists have run away to beyond the Beni- Eringeti-Komanda-Bunya Road; and the terrorists can no longer concentrate in big groups. It is safer for them to splinter into small groups which, they hope, may not be seen by our eyes,” he revealed.
The president told the terrorists that fleeing from Congo to Uganda in bid to stop the military from pursuing them was a futile mission as the excessive killings of innocent civilians would not deter the Ugandan force either.
He said the government managed to terminate 26 criminals, capturing 25 of them and seizing, 2 light machine guns and 7 IEDs.
