Five dead, 54 injured after truck carrying Ugandans from S. Sudan overturned

GULU
Five people have been confirmed dead and 54 others injured after one of the trucks carrying Ugandans evacuated by Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) from South Sudan overturned several times, 42 Kilometres from Ugandan border.
The accident is said to have happened in Jablen village, Eastern Equatorial state along the Nimule-Juba Highway on Tuesday afternoon.

The deceased and those injured were part of the over 6,000 Ugandans who were evacuated Tuesday from Gumbo market, a few kilometres from Juba City in South Sudan.
The group is the third batch of UPDF’s evacuation mission.
This brings to over 11,000 Ugandans who have so far been evacuated from South Sudan since the exercise was launched on Thursday following renewed fights in the Africa’s youngest nation.

The UPDF fourth division spokesperson Lt Hassan Ahmad Kato, who was on the evacuation team, confirmed the incidence to Daily Monitor in a telephone interview this afternoon.
Lt Kato said that although, the truck was in the convoy that left Gumbo market today morning, it wasn't part of the UPDF nor police.
According to him, the accident happened when the driver of the fully loaded truck tried to negotiate a sharp corner but failed thus overturning several times.
He said the truck was being driven by a Somali national who offered to carry people from Gumbo market to Uganda.
“We still don’t have a clear picture of what happened, but all we found out was that the trailer rolled over several times after making the sharp corner. I can’t tell whether it was being driven very fast or not because we were ahead of the convoy,” Lt Kato said.

UPDF had by press time had arranged for a helicopter to airlift some of those with grave injuries for quick medical attention in a yet to be established Health facility in Gulu Town.
Meanwhile, those with minor injuries were were receiving treatment an in an Ambulance the army moved with.
“The number of the injured is too big and its likely some will be attended to at Nimule Hospital before being transported to Gulu district for better medication,” Lt Kato added.
By press time, details of the deceased and the injured were still scanty.

UPDF out of South Sudan
According to Lt Kato, all UPDF soldiers who participated in the evacuation mission returned from South Sudan.
“We have left South Sudan as we promised, our mission was only to evacuate and we have done it peacefully although we met challenges. We understand that there are still more left in S. Sudan but we had to end the mission due to logistic challenges,” Lt Kato said.

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