Lightning strike kills 14 children, injures 29 in refugee camp in Uganda

At least 14 children, eight boys and six girls, were killed and 29 were injured by a lightning strike at the Palabek Settlement Camp in Northern Uganda on Saturday.

All the casualties were South Sudanese refugees.

The chairperson of the refugee community in the camp, John Pasquale, told Radio Tamazju on Monday that 29 of the injured individuals have been treated and discharged from the hospital while five others remain in critical condition.

“On Saturday evening, lightning struck a food distribution center in Palabek Refugee Camp where several children, some of them members of Sunday school and footballers were sheltering while it was raining,” he stated. “All of them are from Nuer children who passed on due to lightning on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in Palabek in Lamwo District in northern Uganda.

Three of the deceased children were from Lou Nuer, three from Mayiandit, three from Mayom, two from Leer, one from Rubkona, one from Koch, and one from Fangak.

Pasquale described the incident as shocking and added that they are offering counseling services to those who lost their loved ones at the camp.

“As the leaders, we are trying to counsel them and we have invited the partners dealing with psychosocial support on the ground and we are making sure that we try to make them accept it, but it is so unfortunate that people are living in heavy pain,” he said.

One of the refugees in the camp, Gatkuoth Riak Tong, who spoke to our reporter on a phone from the hospital where the victims are being treated described the situation as devastating as those who lost their loved ones were finding it hard to come to terms with the tragedy.

The deceased were buried on Monday at the camp in Palabek.