Shocking rebel attack on Ugandan school near Congo border, 41 dead

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 on 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.

The 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.

The raid, which happened around 11.30 pm, involved about five attackers, the Ugandan military said.

Soldiers from a nearby brigade who responded to the attack found the school on fire, “with dead bodies of students lying in the compound," military spokesman Brig. Felix Kulayigye said in a statement.

That statement cited 47 bodies, with eight other people wounded and being treated at a local hospital.