At least 41 killed in rebel attack on Ugandan school near Congo border
Kampala (AP): Ugandan authorities recovered the bodies of 41 people, including 38 students, following an attack by suspected rebels on secondary school near the border with Congo, the local mayor said Saturday.
The victims included the students, one guard and two members of the local community who were killed outside the school, Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Mayor Selevest Mapoze told The Associated Press. An unknown number of people were abducted by the rebels, who fled across the porous border into Congo after the raid on Friday night.
Mapoze said that while some of the students suffered fatal burns when the rebels set fire to a dormitory, others were shot or hacked with machetes.
Police said that rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces, who have been launching attacks for years from their bases in volatile eastern Congo, carried out the raid on Lhubiriha Secondary School in the border town of Mpondwe.
The school, co-ed and privately owned, is located in the Ugandan district of Kasese, about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Congo border.
"A dormitory was set on fire and a food store looted. So far 25 bodies have been recovered from the school and transferred to Bwera Hospital," police said in a statement, adding that eight others were in critical condition.
Police said Ugandan troops tracked the attackers into Congo's Virunga National Park. The military confirmed in a statement that Ugandan troops inside Congo "are pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted."
Joe Walusimbi, an official representing Uganda's president in Kasese, told The Associated Press over the phone that some of the victims "were burnt beyond recognition."
Winnie Kiiza, an influential political leader and a former lawmaker from the region, condemned the "cowardly attack" on Twitter. She said "attacks on schools are unacceptable and are a grave violation of children's rights," adding that schools should always be "a safe place for every student."
The ADF has been accused of launching many attacks in recent years, targeting civilians, in remote parts of eastern Congo.
The ADF has long opposed the rule of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a U.S. security ally who has been in power since 1986.
The group was established in the early 1990s by some Ugandan Muslims, who said they had been sidelined by Museveni's policies. At the time, the rebels staged deadly attacks in Ugandan villages as well as in the capital, including a 1998 attack in which 80 students were massacred in a town not from the scene of the latest attack.
A Ugandan military assault later forced the ADF into eastern Congo, where many rebel groups are able to operate because the central government has limited control there.
The group has since established ties with the Islamic State group.
In March , at least 19 people were killed in Congo by suspected ADF extremists.
Ugandan authorities for years have vowed to track down ADF militants even outside Ugandan territory. In 2021, Uganda launched joint air and artillery strikes in Congo against the group.
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BJP accuses CM Siddaramaiah of 'misleading' public on govt job figures
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra on Wednesday lashed out at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, accusing him of "misleading" the public on government recruitment figures and "failing" to address the concerns of unemployed youth in the state.
In a detailed post on his X handle, Vijayendra alleged that the Congress-led government was attempting to deflect accountability by blaming the previous BJP administration instead of initiating concrete steps to fill vacant posts.
“Chief Minister, please refrain from misleading the people. Do not attempt to shift the blame for all your shortcomings onto the BJP and evade responsibility. Your administration has earned a reputation for arrogance, corruption and mismanagement,” Vijayendra said, adding that students and youth were not naïve enough to be swayed by what he termed as "exaggerated claims".
Vijayendra's response came following Siddaramaiah's statement on Tuesday blaming BJP for the huge backlog of government job vacancies.
The CM had said that when Congress assumed office in 2023, over 2.64 lakh government posts were vacant.
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The backlog resulted from prolonged inaction under the previous BJP government, which failed to initiate timely recruitment or create a structured roadmap, he said.
As thousands of government job aspirants staged a massive protests in Dharwad on Tuesday demanding filling the vacant posts immediately, Siddaramaiah accused BJP leaders of "misleading students for political gains" and said recruitment irregularities and alleged corruption between 2019 and 2023 had eroded trust in the system, leading to the current crisis.
Questioning the government’s public statements on employment generation, Vijayendra referred to figures tabled in the Legislative Assembly.
“According to the official figures presented by your own government in the Legislative Assembly, only 8,157 government recruitments have been completed during your three years in office. Yet publicly claiming that 40,000 posts have been filled raises serious concerns. Does this not amount to misleading the unemployed youth of the state?” the Shikaripura MLA asked.
The BJP leader also raised the issue of large-scale vacancies in government departments, claiming that lakhs of posts remained unfilled even after the Congress came to power.
According to him, the state was struggling financially and questioned the delay in initiating fresh recruitment drives despite what he described as legal clarity on proceeding under the existing reservation framework.
Vijayendra further criticised the government for prioritising the accommodation of party workers and disgruntled MLAs in state-run corporations with ministerial rank and perks, while unemployed youth continued to wait for job opportunities.
“At the very least, please stop making claims that do not align with facts. Youth unrest in the state is mounting. Before matters escalate further, act with sincerity — or consider stepping down and seeking the people’s forgiveness,” the BJP state chief said.
Noting that frustration among students and job aspirants was intensifying, Vijayendra urged the CM to immediately expedite pending recruitment processes and ensure transparency in appointments.
He warned that the government would be held accountable for any fallout arising out of growing youth discontent.
