A lighting strike has killed at least 14 people, including a nine-year-old girl, and left over 30 more injured in Uganda. 

The victims were gathered for prayers in a church within the Palabek refugee camp, in northern Uganda, when the lighting struck on Saturday evening.

Most of the victims are understood to be children including a nine-year-old girl. 

Police have not revealed the nationalities of the victims but the camp and others in the Lamwo district mostly hosts refugees from South Sudan – which borders the country. 

Most of the over 50,000 refugees who live in the camp had fled from South Sudan during a bloody civil war that gripped the country shortly after its independence in 2011. 

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Ugandan police said: ‘The victims… had gathered for prayers when the rain started around 5.00pm local time, and the lightning thunder struck at 5:30pm.’

Fatal lightning strikes are common in the east African country, especially in schools where structures rarely have lightning conductors.

Four years ago, lightning killed 10 children in the city of Arua, also in north-western Uganda.

The children were playing football when heavy rain forced them to take a break in a nearby grass-thatched structure which was struck by lightning.

Nine children, aged 13 to 15, were killed on the spot while another died on the way to hospital.

Uganda’s north-western region has been experiencing severe rains coupled with thunder and lightning.

According to the BBC, that was the worst accident of its kind in Uganda since 2011, when 18 children were killed at a school in the mid-western region; a time when 28 people died from lightning strikes in a single week.

Utilities

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Ugandan police said: ‘The victims… had gathered for prayers when the rain started around 5.00pm local time, and the lightning thunder struck at 5:30pm.’