Student Julius Isingoma has narrated how he miraculously survived a night-time terror attack by suspected Islamist rebels on his school dormitory.
The victim said that he smeared the blood of his dead colleagues in his mouth, ears and head so that the attackers would think he was dead.
More than 40 people died in the attack on the secondary school in the small town of Mpondwe on Friday night.
Julius was among 6 students who managed to survive the attack which lasted for many hours.
He did not identify the attackers, but said they were gun-wielding men who launched their attack at about 10pm local time.
They came to the boys’ dormitory but the students had locked it after realising they were in danger.
Julius narrated that when they couldn’t open the door they hurled a bomb inside the dormitory and then used hammers and axes to break down the door.
Julius was standing behind many of the students who had formed a shield near the door and were shot dead when the militants got into the dormitory.
There were cries as the students were gunned down, hacked or shot to death.
He quickly climbed to the top of a bunk bed, removed some of the wooden planks of the ceiling, and jumped inside to hide.
From there, he helplessly watched his colleagues being brutally murdered by the assailants, who then set fire to mattresses and left.
Still in hideout, he was overwhelmed by the smoke and he dropped back down into the dormitory with a thud.
The militants heard the thud and went back to check. It was at that point when he knew he had to come out of the attack alive.
Julius narrated that he lay next to the bloodied bodies of his friends and thought very fast. Then he smeared a lot of blood into his ears, mouth and head and when the militants came, they checked his hand for a pulse and left.
Another survivor, Godwin Mumbere, was in the same dormitory as Julius.
The 18-year-old recalled the assailants going to the girls’ dormitory, dragging them out and hacking them to death with machetes.
They then came to the boys’ dormitory, broke down the door and started attacking the students.
The bed Godwin was hiding under was overturned and his friends who were on top fell to the ground and were killed. The attackers saw him but thought he was dead.
But they went out and came back into the dormitory to ensure everyone was dead.
Godwin said it was at that point that they shot him in the hand and set the dorm ablaze.
Godwin was brought back to reality by the shouts of another student who said they were dying.
He ran out of the dormitory, climbed the school gate and ran to a nearby hardware store through a cocoa plantation. He got to a lodge and hid under a vehicle until he was rescued.
Five survivors are currently recuperating at the hospital. One of them is a girl who is in critical condition at the ICU. A surgeon advised that she cannot be moved because of a severe head injury from being hit with a hammer by the rebels.
