At least 41 people are dead following an attack by suspected rebels on a secondary school in Uganda near the border with Congo, the local mayor said on Saturday.

The victims included 38 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 (AP).

An unknown number of people were also abducted by the rebels, who then fled across the porous border into Congo after the raid on Friday night.

The mayor said some of the students suffered fatal burns when the rebels set fire to a dormitory, while other students were shot or hacked with machetes.

Police said rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were responsible for the raid.

The school, Lhubiriha Secondary School, is co-ed, privately owned and is located in the Ugandan district of Kasese, about two kilometres from the Congo border in the town of Mpondwe.

Police said in a statement that eight survivors were in a critical condition after the attack. Twenty-five bodies had also been recovered from the school and transferred to Bwera Hospital.

Joe Walusimbi, an official representing Uganda’s president in Kasese, told AP that some of the victims “were burnt beyond recognition”.

Attackers being tracked across border

Ugandan troops tracked the attackers into Congo’s Virunga National Park, according to police.

The military confirmed in a statement that Ugandan troops inside Congo were “pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted”.

Influential political leader Winnie Kiiza, a former lawmaker from the region, condemned the “cowardly attack” on Twitter.

“Attacks on schools are unacceptable and are a grave violation of children’s rights,” she said, 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 US security ally who has been in power since 1986.

The group was established in the early 1990s by Ugandan Muslims who said they had been sidelined by Mr 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 far 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 have vowed for years to track down ADF militants even outside Ugandan territory.

In 2021, Uganda launched joint air and artillery strikes in Congo against the group.

AP