3 students abducted by rebels in Uganda escape captivity

KAMPALA, Uganda

Three of the six students abducted by armed rebels after a nighttime raid on a school in Uganda last week have escaped from captivity, an official said on Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye, a spokesman of the Ugandan army, told Anadolu that the students returned to their homes, and that more details will be shared later. He said the security forces are on the hunt for the attackers.

The army has blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) group for the attack on the Lhubirira secondary school in the frontier district of Kasese late Friday, in which at least 41 people were killed. Some were hacked to death while others died when their dormitories were set on fire.

The abducted students were taken as porters of food looted from the school’s store, according to the military.

The ADF originated in Uganda in the mid-1990s to overthrow President Yoweri Museveni, but were overpowered and thus moved their bases to forests in volatile eastern Congo, from where they often attack villages and kill civilians.