Rebels storm Ugandan school, killing at least 41 including students

An injured person is treated at a local clinic after an attack in Mpondwe, Uganda, on June 17, 2023 at the Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary School.

The death toll from an attack on a school in western Uganda by militants linked to the Islamic State group KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Ugandan authorities recovered the bodies of 41 people, including 38 students, who were burned, shot or hacked to death after suspected rebels attacked a secondary school near the border with Congo, the local mayor said Saturday.At least six people were abducted by the rebels, who fled across the porous border into Congo after the raid on Friday night, according to the Ugandan military.Authorities blamed the massacre at Lhubiriha Secondary School in the border town of Mpondwe on the Allied Democratic Forces, a shadowy extremist group with ties to the Islamic State, which has been launching attacks for years from bases in volatile eastern Congo.RELATED: Searchers who found children missing for 40 days turned to ayahuasca for helpThe victims included the students, one guard and two members of the local community who were killed outside the school, Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Mayor Selevest Mapoze told The Associated Press.Mapoze said that some of the students suffered fatal burns when the rebels set fire to a dormitory and others were shot or hacked with machetes.TOPSHOT - A boy is conforted at the scene of an attack in Mpondwe, Uganda, on June 17, 2023 at the Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary School.

The death toll from an attack on a school in western Uganda by militants linked to the Islamic State group has rise The raid, which happened around 11:30 p.m., involved about five attackers, the Ugandan military said.