A woman mourns during the funeral of Florence Masika and Zakayo Masereka in Mpondwe in western Uganda, on June 18, 2023. (Photo by Stuart Tibaweswa / AFP)
Kampala: Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday vowed to eliminate the militants responsible for massacring at least 41 people in a "cowardly, terrorist" attack on a school in the country's west.
"Their action -- the desperate, cowardly, terrorist action -- will not save them," Museveni said in a statement issued by his press office in Kampala, his first remarks since the attack late Friday by militants linked to the Islamic State group.
Victims were hacked, shot and burned in the late-night raid on Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe, which lies less than two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Pope Francis offered a prayer on Sunday for "the young student victims of the brutal attack" that has shocked Uganda and drawn condemnation from around the globe.
Ugandan authorities have blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia based in DR Congo, and are pursuing the attackers who fled back toward the border with six abductees.
Fifteen others from the community, including five girls, were still missing, said Eriphaz Muhindi, chairman of Kasese district, which shares a long and forested border with DR Congo.
The government said on Sunday it would assist with funeral arrangements and support the injured.
Attacks in Uganda are rare but in June 1998, 80 students were burnt to death in their dormitories in an ADF raid on Kichwamba Technical Institute near the DR Congo border. More than 100 students were abducted.
