Man dies during LDU recruitment in Lira  

One person collapsed and died on Wednesday during the recruitment exercise of Local Defence Unit (LDU) personnel in Lira City.   

The deceased identified as Solomon Amone, 28, a resident of Adyel Ward in Lira City West Division, was one of the applicants who had turned up for interviews to join the unit.

After finishing the 2.5-kilometre run which he was leading, Amone collapsed and died. The recruits were subjected to the run to prove their physical fitness worthiness before they could be enrolled into the force.

Maj Flavia Terimulungi, the UPDF 5th Division spokesperson, confirmed the incident.

“We have picked the body and taken it to Lira Regional Referral Hospital mortuary awaiting a post-mortem to establish the actual cause of his death,” she said.

“But we suspect that he might have been having underlying medical conditions which became worse when he was subjected to physical exercises,” Maj Terimulungi added.

Over 1,000 youth from Lira City, Lira, Alebtong, and Dokolo districts turned up at the recruitment centre at Railways Primary School playground.

“We recruited 65 youth from Alebtong, 53 from Dokolo and 117 from both Lira District and Lira City and the exercise for the nine districts in Lango Sub-region which started today (Wednesday) will go on up to Friday because we have a high number of candidates,” Maj Terimulungi said.

Recruitment of LDUs for the remaining districts of Otuke, Oyam, Kole, Amolatar, Kwania, and Apac will be conducted on Thursday and Friday in Lira.