As a result of a lightning strike in a refugee camp in northern Uganda, 14 people died, including 13 children and one adult, the BBC reported on Sunday. 34 people were injured. According to local media, the fatalities were attending a church service.
On Saturday, lightning struck a refugee camp located in the Palabek Refugee Settlement in northern Uganda. 14 people were killed and 34 were injured.
“The faithful gathered for a service when it started to rain at 5 p.m. The lightning itself would strike half an hour later,” the police said in a statement. They did not explain the nationality of the victims, but the camp houses mainly refugees from South Sudan. Most of them fled to Uganda after the outbreak of civil war that engulfed the country shortly after independence in 2011.
Fatalities
Kituuma Rusoke, a Ugandan police spokesman, told BBC News that the adult who died was 21 years old. Rusoke did not provide the exact ages of the 13 children who died.
Incidents of deadly lightning are common in eastern Africa. The most at risk are schools and other public buildings, which in many cases do not have lightning rods installed.
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