Exposed: How Kasese School Attackers Were Guided By Young Boy
New details have indicated that the suspected ADF rebels who attacked Lhubirira Secondary School in Mpondwe by ADF rebels a few weeks ago were led to their target by a young boy.
“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,” Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga told journalists on Monday.
“This place( school) is just 1.5km from the border.”
The attack on Mpondwe school saw over 40 students killed by suspected ADF rebels who also burnt down the boys’ dormitory whereas the girls were hacked.
New details
Updating the country on the ongoing investigations into the attack, the joint security spokesperson explained that new details indicated that on reaching the school, the ADF rebels first hit the watchman with a hammer on the head before dividing 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.”
According to the joint security spokesperson, the first responder was a boda boda rider identified as Julius Muhindo who was riding toward Nyabugando and came across a small roadblock and the rebels fired towards his direction, prompting him to abandon the motorcycle and return to where he was coming from.
Enanga said that suspecting these were highway robbers, the boda boda rider went and mobilized his colleagues to attack the roadblock.
“Thinking they were thugs, a big number of boda boda riders rode to the direction of the roadblock but they were met with fire. 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.
He 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 responding after getting information about the attack. This matter should not be politicised. We want to reiterate that we are trained to move towards gunfire and like we have done in many foiled terror attacks, we have never been intimidated by these attacks,” Enanga said.
