Ugandan says suspects were arrested over a terror attack at a school that killed 42, including 37 students, and was blamed on Islamic State-linked group ADF

Ugandan police stated on Monday that 20 people had been arrested as suspected collaborators in a terror attack at a school that killed 42, including 37 students. It was blamed on the Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“Twenty arrests have been made of suspected collaborators, suspected ADF collaborators,” said police spokesman Fred Enanga at a press conference, according to AFP.

In a separate statement, he stated that the death toll was 42, including 37 students. The oldest was a 95-year-old woman, and the youngest a 12-year-old girl. He revealed that the arrested included the head teacher and the director of the Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe, western Uganda.

Another six wounded were still in hospital. He said that the number of abducted children ranges between five and seven, due to conflicting reports. Enanga added, “an attack on innocent children is barbaric, is inhumane and of course constitutes crimes against humanity.”

“As a country, we continue to stand by each other in the fight against terrorism. No matter how heinous the attack or how brutal or inhumane the methods used, the ADF will not be able to succeed in demolishing the solidarity of Ugandans in the fight against terrorism and extremism,” the police spokesman said.

The victims’ families were still burying their young children and loved ones on Monday. Some, though, were waiting agonizingly for DNA tests and the latest news on whether their missing children burnt beyond recognition or abducted.

“We are not sure our children are among those abducted or burnt beyond recognition. We are distressed, maybe the government will give us an answer soon and we are praying,” a father told AFP, “it’s a painful situation no parent would want to go through, but we are keeping hope that they are alive wherever they are.”

“Their action — the desperate, cowardly, terrorist action — will not save them,” Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said in response to the attack, and vowed to hunt the militants “into extinction.”