Ugandan troops have killed a gunman who shot dead at least 10 civilians this week in a bloody rampage at a camp for war-displaced people in northern Uganda, the military said on Thursday.
Soldiers had been looking for the man, a militia member responsible for guarding the Ogwete camp for internally displaced people, since he fled the area after Monday’s killing spree, and caught up with him on Wednesday, it said.
”We have been pursuing him since Monday and when we caught up with him, he tried to take off, so our troops opened fire and killed him,” said Lieutenant Chris Magezi, the army spokesperson for northern Uganda.
Magezi could not say whether the soldiers involved would face any charges.
The gunman, a member of the local Amuka militia in northern Uganda’s conflict-torn Lira district, had opened fire in an apparent drunken rage on Monday, killing 10 and wounding at least 14.
The militia is one of several volunteer auxiliary forces created by the Ugandan army in 2003 to help guard villages and camps from rebel attacks by the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Northern Uganda has been the scene of a nearly 20-year war that has killed thousands and displaced nearly two million people, 1,6-million of whom who live in squalid camps dotting the region. — AFP
