/ 18 March 2000

100 DIE IN UGANDAN DOOMSDAY CULT MASS SUICIDE

MORE than 100 members of a Doomsday cult in southwestern Uganda died when they locked themselves in their makeshift church and set it ablaze in an apparent ritual mass suicide. “Some believers locked themselves in their makeshift church and many people died. The number is said to be about 100,” said police spokesman Eric Naigambi. The incident occurred on Friday at Kanungu in Rukungiri district, about 320km, southwest of Kampala, he added. The district is next to Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo and near the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The cult is allegedly called the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. He said that as many as 200 people could have perished in the fire.