killed at least 41 peopleAn attack on a school on the Uganda-Congo border by suspected Islamic militants, including 38 students, is another brutal reminder of the deteriorating security situation in Africa. In recent years, Islamist and extremist violence has increased across the continent from North Africa to Somalia, as governments grow increasingly weak. The border region between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is no stranger to insurgency. Ugandan officials have blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militant group that operates largely from the Congo, for the attack. According to police, a group armed with knives and grenades attacked the Lubiriha secondary school, just two kilometers from the Congolese border, on Friday. Students were hacked, some were kidnapped. The hostel was set on fire and the school looted. In 1998, the ADF attacked another school on the border with the Congo, where about 80 students were burned to death. The organization, which declared its allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist unit in 2016, uses such attacks for their shock value and to use abducted students as child soldiers.
The ADF was formed in the 1990s by several militant groups opposed to the regime of Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni. Founded by a former Catholic who converted to Islam, the ADF’s main recruitment issue was that Muslims, who make up about 14% of Uganda’s population (official figures), were discriminated against under Mr Museveni’s rule. going. After the 1998 school attack, the Ugandan and Congolese armies launched a joint operation, which forced the ADF to move into the jungles of eastern DR Congo. The group has become active again in recent years as separate al-Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated organizations have grown stronger in Africa, particularly after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization invasion of Libya, which toppled the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. , caused a civil war and triggered an outbreak. Weapons in the hands of militant groups across the continent. The situation is particularly dire in Uganda. Under Mr Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, the country has never been more stable or peaceful. He has presented himself as an ally in the war on terrorism, while at the same time, making his regime more repressive at home. In neighboring Congo, another civil strife-stricken country, vast expanses of the lawless eastern parts are a safe haven for militant extremists. Uganda and Congo say they are committed to fighting the insurgents, including the ADF, but those words are written in the sand until governments improve the quality of governance, enforce law and order, and launch joint operations Does not take immediate measures with the help of international actors. Against the growing network of militants in the region