According to a woman who lives next to the school, students in Uganda were singing gospel songs prior to a deadly attack by Islamist militants on Friday.
Mary Masika told the BBC, "Then I heard screaming.". About 40 people were killed in the vicious attack in Mpondwe.
Attackers with ties to the Islamic State have been given the blame.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), founded in the 1990s, fought President Yoweri Museveni on the grounds that Muslims were being persecuted.
Their main base of operations is in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The attack on Friday's Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary School took place not far from the border.
The attack, which lasted roughly 90 minutes, left Ms. Masika and other locals terrified, according to Ms.
- Information that some readers may find upsetting is forewarned.
Since then, she hasn't been able to eat or sleep, she reportedly told the BBC in Swahili.
Usually, the students sing before going to bed, and at first, she and her daughter assumed that when a noise interrupted their songs at around 22:00 (20:30 GMT), it meant that the students were having a little fun.
The school, which had about 60 boarders living in a small compound, quickly became aware that something terrible was happening.
ADF rebels had broken into dorms, set them on fire, and killed and injured students while using machetes.
Elphanas Mbusa, a 47-year-old security guard, and Masereka Elton, a 17-year-old, were both killed in the attack, and one family in Mpondwe held their funerals on Sunday.
Their other son, Brian Muhindo, 15, who was also enrolled in the school, is presumed to be missing. They are unsure if he is one of the six boys who were abducted or one of the bodies that cannot be identified because of their severe burns.
According to Hurubana Kimadi Onesmus, who is a grandfather, it is difficult to comprehend how the attackers were able to enter the school where his son, a security guard, worked and where his grandsons were enrolled.
The 69-year-old stated that there was a significant military presence in the area.
There is currently a lot of security at the school, and the BBC team was only given a short period of time to take some pictures of the destroyed structures.
The scene was tragic and upsetting.
The girls' dormitory was attacked with machetes, and as they fled, others were shot dead, leaving a lot of dried blood on the ground.
The boys' dorm had been locked; either they had refused to let the rebels inside or they had been locked inside by them. The building was doused in fuel by the militants, who then set it ablaze.
The smell of death is palpable inside, and the beds have been reduced to wire mesh with bits of flesh still adhered to them.
Ms. Masika claimed that near the end of the assault, at or around 23:30, she overheard one of the attackers asking another combatant if "the job was done" while talking at her gate.
They were speaking in the regional language of Swahili when they started shouting "Allahu Akbar," which means "God is greatest.".
Following these chants, one of them continued, "We have succeeded in destabilizing Museveni's country," she said. ".
President Museveni reacted by pledging to dispatch more troops to the Rwenzori Mountains, which are situated near the border between Uganda and the DR Congo, declaring: "Their action. the cowardly, desperate act of terrorism. can't save them. ".
Muslims and Christians appear to coexist in Mpondwe's neighborhood. Some of the people who came to the funerals on Sunday dressed traditionally.
Other funerals for the victims of the attack took place in villages all over the area, with most people shocked and saddened by the brutality of the attack.
