The killing of at least 41 people, including 38 students, in an attack on a school on the Uganda-Congo border by suspected Islamist militants is yet another cruel reminder of the worsening security situation in Africa. In recent years, Islamist and militant violence have picked up across the continent, from North Africa to Somalia, as governments look increasingly weaker. The border region between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo is no stranger to militancy. Ugandan authorities have blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militant group that largely operates from the Congo, for the attack. According to the police, a group attacked the Lhubiriha secondary school, located just two kilometres from the Congolese border, with machetes and grenades on Friday. Students were hacked, some them kidnapped. the dormitory set on fire and the school looted. In 1998, the ADF had attacked another school on the Congolese border, where some 80 students were burnt to death. The outfit, which declared its allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist entity, in 2016, utilises such attacks for their shock value and to use kidnapped students as child soldiers.
The ADF was formed in the 1990s by a number of militant groups opposed to the rule of Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni. Founded by a former catholic who had converted to Islam, the ADF’s main recruiting plank was that Muslims, who make up some 14% of Uganda’s population (official figures), are being discriminated against under Mr. Museveni’s rule. After the 1998 school attack, the Ugandan and Congolese armies launched a joint operation, which forced the ADF to relocate to the jungles of eastern DR Congo. The group became active again in recent years as different al Qaeda and Islamic State-linked outfits emerged stronger in Africa, particularly after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization invasion of Libya that brought down the regime of Muammar Qadhafi, caused a civil war and triggered a proliferation of weapons in the hands of militant groups across the continent. The situation in Uganda is particularly grave. Under Mr. Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, the country has never been stable or peaceful. He has presented himself as an ally in the war against terror, while at the same time, turning his regime more repressive at home. In neighbouring Congo, another civil strife-hit country, the vast expanses of lawless eastern parts are a safe haven for militant extremists. Uganda and the Congo say they are committed to fighting militants including the ADF, but those words are written in sand unless the regimes take urgent measures to improve the quality of governance, implement law and order and launch joint operations, with help from international actors, against the growing networks of militants in the region.
