Local officials reported on Sunday that lightning struck a makeshift church where refugees were taking refuge in a Ugandan camp, killing at least 14 people, including many children.
When a strong storm struck the northern Ugandan refugee camp of Palabek on Saturday night, about fifty people sought safety in the church.
William Komech, the resident district commissioner for the Lamwo region, told AFP that 14 individuals, including five girls and nine boys between the ages of 14 and 18, perished when lightning struck the metal roof. He went on to say, “A number of injured people are being admitted to health centers.”
The majority of the refugees were from South Sudan’s Nuer community. Hillary Onek, Uganda’s minister for refugees and disaster preparedness, told AFP that the government is collaborating with UNHCR and that other organizations are giving the survivors the support they need.
In order to aid transfer the dead to their respective relatives, the government team is already on the scene, he continued.
In recent years, there have been multiple lightning-related fatalities in Uganda. Nine teenagers were killed in an event in August 2020, and at least 18 kids were killed in a lightning strike at an elementary school in 2011.
In February 2020, an apparent lightning strike in southwest Uganda’s Mgahinga National Park killed four endangered mountain gorillas.
