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Switzerland condemns Uganda school attack

funeral
People attend the June 18 funeral of two of the victims of an attack at a school in Mpondwe, Uganda. Keystone

Switzerland has "strongly" condemned the attack on a Ugandan high school that claimed the lives of 42 people, most of them students.

Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Jürg Lauber, offered his “condolences to the victims and their families”.

Many of the victims died when the dormitory of the Lhubiriha Secondary School, near the Ugandan border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, was set on fire late on Friday.

Ugandan army and police officials blamed the attack on members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist militia that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Some victims were hacked to death with machetes, others shot and burned alive.


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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR