IN a cruel twist of fate, at least 14 South Sudanese refugee children who had escaped the horrors of war in their homeland were killed when lightning struck their shelter in northern Uganda’s Palabek Refugee Settlement.
The children, who had already endured the trauma of fleeing conflict, were seeking protection from a mild rainfall at a food distribution point when disaster struck. The bolt of lightning tore through Zone 8 of the settlement at approximately 5 PM, leaving in its wake not only 14 dead but also 34 others injured, seven of them critically.
“These children were simply trying to stay dry,” says John Pasquale Udo, the Refugee Welfare Council 3 Chairperson, his voice heavy with emotion. “Some were part of a church choir, practising their songs for Sunday service. Others were just playing football, doing what children do to find moments of joy even in displacement.”
The victims, all from the Nuer tribe, included five girls and nine boys. Their sudden deaths have sent shockwaves through the refugee community, with distraught parents and relatives gathering at Paloda Health Center III’s morgue to identify their children’s bodies.
The scene at the health center is one of overwhelming grief. While medical staff tend to the 27 survivors in stable condition and seven fighting for their lives, a crowd of anxious parents waits outside, hoping against hope that their children are among the survivors.
“We are trying to manage the situation right now with a very big crowd gathered to identify the bodies of their children,” Udo explains, calling for urgent support from humanitarian organizations. The community, he emphasizes, needs immediate psychological support to process this devastating loss.
The tragedy adds another layer of trauma to families who had already risked everything to protect their children from the violence in Sudan. Many had walked hundreds of miles, enduring hunger and hardship, only to lose their loved ones to a deadly bolt from the sky in what should have been their place of refuge.
While lightning strikes are relatively rare in Lamwo District, they are not unprecedented. Local records show previous incidents, including a 2020 strike that injured four people in Padibe Town Council and a 2016 incident that killed 20 cows in Guda Palwo village.
As the police work to document the full details of this tragedy, the refugee community grapples with an urgent question: how to help families who, having already lost their homes to war, must now bear the unbearable weight of losing their children to nature’s fury.
*Police investigations are ongoing, and authorities are expected to release more details about the deceased and injured in the coming days.*
