30 left homeless as arsonists set ablaze 15 huts
What you need to know:
- The area chairperson, Mr Jackson Ojok, said they will form a vigilante group to work with the police in ensuring the arsonists are apprehended.
Unknown people have set ablaze 15 grass thatched huts in Gulu Municipality in what local leaders said is an organised crime.
The incident, which occurred yesterday morning in Aywee Sub-ward in Pece Division, left about 30 people homeless and destroyed household property worth millions of shillings.
Ms Lily Aryemo, 58, one of the affected residents, said she was woken up around 2am by heat after fire had razed half of the hut she was sleeping in with her five-year-old grandson.
Ms Aryemo said and her grandson were lucky to escape from the burning hut but lost all household property, including money. “I came out without anything, I was just lucky that the fire had not engulfed the whole hut because I could have been burnt to death with my grandson. I have lost Shs200,000 I had kept for my grandson’s school fees to start nursery today [yesterday],” Ms Aryemo said.
She said she also lost a sack of sorghum, clothes, chairs and beds in the fire.
Ms Aryemo suspects the fire was deliberately started by thugs revenging arrest by local leaders.
Another affected resident, Ms Janet Auma, 27, a mother of three, lost her hut with all her household property in the inferno.
“The fire was started on the side of the hut where my son was sleeping. I was woken up by a feeling of intense heat only to find the hut was on fire. I quickly carried my son and threw him outside before following him,” Ms Auma narrated.
“I want leaders and the police to investigate the matter and arrest those behind this attack. This has left many of us who survived the fire living in fear of even being attacked because we do not know whether or not their intention was to burn to death,”
The area chairperson, Mr Jackson Ojok, said they will form a vigilante group to work with the police in ensuring the arsonists are apprehended.
Mr Ojok said the attack is a security threat in his area since it is the second in two months. “We shall heighten the security watch in the neighbourhood to ensure safety of the locals and their properties,” he said.
Mr Kelly Komakech, the division chairperson, said the arsonist are suspected to be former street boys now adults who went on rampage to intimidate locals.
