Soldier kills seven in war-torn northern Uganda

A Ugandan soldier deployed in a refugee camp in war-torn northern Uganda has shot dead seven people, including his wife, child and father in-law, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.

Lt. Chris Magezi, the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) spokesman of the region, told Xinhua by telephone that the Private Bono-Lino Africano had a domestic problem with his wife, accusing her of having an affair with another man in Laguti Internally Displaced Person's (IDPs) camp in Pader district before he committed the slaughter.

Magezi said Lino's father-in-law called a meeting on Sunday night to iron out the matter, but the meeting ended in bloodshed.

"Private Lino stormed out of the meeting, went and picked his gun from the barracks. He came back and shot dead his wife, child, father-in-law and the alleged rival," Magezi said.

Other victims were those invited by his father-in-law to intervene with the family problem.

Magezi said the army regretted the incident and is now hunting for Lino, who, if arrested, face a maximum sentence of death by firing squad.

"This is the highest form of criminality by a UPDF soldier. We have launched an intensive man-hunt for Lino to bring him to book," he said.

Over 1.4 million people, 80 percent of whom are women or children, have been forced to live in congested IDP camps in northern Uganda following the abductions and killing of civilians by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

The camps have been marred by increasing crimes involving rape, defilement among others, which have prompted the government to initiate the repatriation of the internal refugees to their villages in those areas relatively secure of the rebel threat.

Source: Xinhua