Lightning strike kills 14 at Uganda refugee camp

Lightning strike kills 14 at Uganda refugee camp

/ 09:43 AM November 04, 2024

Lightning strike kills 14 at Uganda refugee camp

FILE PHOTO/Agence France Press

KAMPALA — At least 14 people, including several children, were killed in a Ugandan refugee camp when lightning hit a makeshift church, officials said Sunday.

Around 50 people were praying in the church in Palabek refugee camp in northern Uganda on Saturday evening when a heavy storm hit the area, police said.

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Fourteen people died when lightning hit its metal roof, including five girls and nine boys aged between 14 and 18, William Komech, resident district commissioner for Lamwo region, told AFP.

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Police said 34 people were injured and treated at a nearby health centre.

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The refugees were mostly from the Nuer community of South Sudan.

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“The government is working with UNHCR and other agencies are providing the necessary assistance to the survivors,” Hillary Onek, Uganda’s minister for refugees and disaster preparedness, told AFP.

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“The government team is already on the ground helping to deliver the bodies to their respective families,” he added.

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Uganda has suffered several lightning-related deaths in recent years.

A strike at a primary school killed at least 18 students in 2011, and nine teenagers were killed in an incident in August 2020.

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In February 2020, four endangered mountain gorillas were killed by an apparent lightning strike in Mgahinga National Park in southwest Uganda.

TAGS: Lightning, Uganda

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