Uganda’s police over the weekend confirmed that at least 14 people were killed while 34 others were injured when lightning struck a church as they gathered for prayers.
The incident occurred in the Palabek refugee camp in Lamwo district in northern Ugandan, police said in a post on the X platform on Sunday.
“The victims… had gathered for prayers when the rain started around 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT), and the lightning thunderstruck at 5:30 p.m.,” police said.
Police did not identify the nationalities of the victims but the camp and others in the region mostly hosted refugees from South Sudan.
Most of those refugees had fled during a bloody civil war that gripped the country shortly after its independence in 2011.
The victims were mostly juveniles and included a nine-year-old girl, police said.
Fatal lightning strikes are common in the East African country, especially in schools where structures rarely have lightning conductors.
