Uganda says captured militant behind school massacre

Uganda said Friday that the captured commander of a militia squad accused of killing two foreign tourists last month had also led a horrific massacre at a school in June that left dozens dead.

The army announced on Thursday it had detained the head of a unit of the feared Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia in an operation that killed six other fighters.

Uganda has blamed the ADF, which is affiliated to the Islamic State group, for both the murder of the honeymooning tourists and their local guide in October, as well as the school attack that cost the lives of 42 people, most of them students.

Victims were hacked, shot and burned in the late-night raid on the school in Mpondwe, which lies close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the worst attack of its kind in Uganda since 2010.

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The ADF is the deadliest of dozens of armed groups that plague troubled eastern Congo, accused of slaughtering thousands of civilians there, as well as carrying out cross-border attacks.

Major General Dick Olum, who oversees Uganda’s military operations against the ADF in the Congo, named the ringleader of the attacks as Abdul Rashid Kyoto, alias Njovu, who was captured in a raid late Tuesday.

He told AFP that the army had intelligence that Njovu also led an attack across the border in DRC last week that killed two Ugandan soldiers and two civilians.

“There is correlation (between) the three attacks and the command by Njovu,” Olum said.

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“We have a lot of intelligence about ADF. We know who has been carrying out these missions to kill people.

“This operation that led to the capture of Njovu… should reassure Ugandans and visitors coming to Uganda that with ongoing operations, Uganda is safe and ADF will be defeated,” Olum said.

Meanwhile, a Ugandan court on Thursday sentenced seven people to between seven and 10 years in prison on a range of charges over their links to the ADF.

The defendants, including a 75-year-old man, had pleaded guilty to belonging to a “terrorist organisation” as well as terrorism financing and child trafficking for recruitment into the ADF.

One also pleaded guilty to recruiting his own children into ADF ranks and to rape.

– By: © Agence France-Presse

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