Uganda army intelligence reports contradict on Kasese school attack

New intelligence reports by the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) claim that the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels did not spend two nights in Kasese before attacking the school, but rather only 25 minutes.

This was revealed by army Deputy Spokesperson Col Deo Akiiki who maintained the narrative that the rebels stayed two nights is wrong.

Earlier the UPDF commander of Mountain Division and Operation Shujaa Maj Gen Dick Olum stated that intelligence gather had pointed to the fact that the rebels stayed in Kasese for two nights as they planned the attack on Mpondwe-Lhubiriha Secondary School.

However, while appearing on NBS TV’s Front-line show on Thursday, Col Akiiki indicated that the attack was a 25 minutes operation which they refer to as a “raid”.

“This was a raid in military language, a raid is very swift and I wonder why people say they (rebels) came and stayed. According to our intelligence, this was a raid that took 20- 40 minutes,” Col Akiiki said.

https://nilepost.co.ug/2023/06/17/adf-rebels-stayed-in-kasese-for-two-nights-as-they-planned-raid-on-school/#:~:text=raid%20on%20school-,ADF%20rebels%20stayed%20in%20Kasese%20for%20two,they%20planned%20raid%20on%20school&text=The%20ADF%20rebels%20responsible%20for,nights%20while%20planning%20the%20attack.

He also said it can not be true that the attackers were only five as was indicated earlier in the different government statements.

“The attackers are not stupid, they can not have come five. There must have been some cut-offs etc outside. Five could have been those within the school because militarily we think there were others elsewhere, no wonder the Boda Boda man was shot at,” he added.

Regarding the proximity of security installations and their inability to react to the attack, Col Akiiki said that two cars of the UPDF and the Police came to the rescue within 40 minutes approximately, but they were overwhelmed by those that needed to be saved at the scene.

He said that pursuing the ADF at such a time was risky “unless with night vision gadgets”.

“They had to put together the architecture of catching up with the fleeing rebels and remember if you look at these deployments, they used the middle corridor to escape, yes there could be lapses, but the reaction is not what has been presented out there,” he said.