Western Ugandan school attack victims’ parents are swarming to the local police station to provide DNA samples that might help identify their missing children among the 42 dead that have been found.
On Friday night, a slaughter that ranks among the worst in recent years in Uganda took place at Lhubirira Secondary School. Attackers used machetes and knives to cut victims to death in a hostel full of girls after setting a dormitory full of boys on fire.
The attackers, who the authorities believe to be members of the ISIL (ISIS)-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces organisation stationed over the border in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also kidnapped six other students.
According to Tai Ramadhan, the regional police commander, many of the remains were so severely burned that it was impossible to identify them.
Simon Kule was still seeking for his son, Philmon Mumbere, who had been to the Bwera Police Station to provide a DNA sample.
“So they should help us to know – either these people are still there or they are in the mortuary so that we should prepare in time.”
Solomon Mulekya was looking for his daughter, Trephine Kaghuo.
“We are not happy, because we have lost our children,” he said. “I’m there in suspense, whether the rebels, they have taken her or we don’t know they killed her along the way.”
Authorities announced on Monday that they had detained for questioning 20 alleged “collaborators” of the assailants, among them the head teacher of the school.
On Sunday, Pope Francis prayed for “the young student victims of the brutal attack” that had horrified Uganda and sparked outrage around the world.
While the United States, a close ally of Uganda, and the African Union also denounced the bloodshed, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres termed it “an appalling act”.
