Dozens killed at Uganda school attack

Militants linked to the ISIL group massacred at least 41 people, mostly students, in western Uganda, the country's deadliest such attack in over a decade, officials said Saturday.

The military said it was pursuing the attackers from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who also abducted six people during a raid on a school late Friday before fleeing back towards the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Officials and witnesses said guns and knives were used in a grisly late-night assault and dormitories set ablaze at Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe.

Police and army officials blamed the ADF, one of the deadliest militias over the border in DR Congo's strife-torn east, which the ISIL group has called its local offshoot.

Sylvester Mapozi, the town council mayor of Mpondwe-Lhubiriha where the attack occurred, said 39 students were killed at the school.

"Within the community, as they (attackers) were going back, they also murdered two people, a female and a male. This is bringing up the number to 41," he said.

Many of the deceased were burned beyond recognition while other students were still unaccounted for, he said.

Mumbere Edgar Dido, 16, said the attackers arrived at his dormitory carrying machetes and guns and opened fire from outside, sending everyone diving under their beds.

"They continued to shoot through the windows, then set fire to our room while we were inside, before going to the girls' dormitory," he said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "strongly condemns" the attack, and sent his "heartfelt condolences" to the families of the victims, his spokesman said Saturday.

"Those responsible for this appalling act must be brought to justice," Guterres' spokesman Farhan Haq said in a...