SW News: Twenty persons have been detained on suspicion of collaborating with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) Jihadists in the deadly school shootings in Uganda last week. According to the national police, the suspects are detained for questioning about their involvement in the murder of 42 individuals, mostly students.

According to the authorities, the head teacher of the school is among those held. The Lhubirira Secondary School in Mpondwe, a town near the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was attacked by a group of rebels connected to the Islamic State on Friday, June 16.

They broke into a dorm for girls and set it on fire before entering the section for boys and started to hack at victims with machetes. Of the 42 victims, 37 were students, and the youngest was 12, said the police. Reports say that an unspecified number of people were kidnapped by rebels and taken across the border into neighboring Congo after the attack on the school.

The Islamist militants frequently invade border towns and villages from their hideouts in eastern Congo, killing innocent people, setting food warehouses on fire, and kidnapping residents for ransom. In the early half of the 90s, Ugandan Muslims established the militant group. The Ugandan military tightened down on the group following a series of attacks forcing them to cross the border into Congo.

The ADF is an Islamic State-affiliated armed group that was earlier linked to predominantly Muslim Ugandan rebels opposed to President Museveni.