Gunmen kill 2, escape with 8 guns in Gulu

May 28, 2016

The gunmen are said to have accessed the LDU detach from the rear and seized the armoury at around 3:00am on Friday. They fled with eight AK47 guns and unidentified rounds of ammunition while the soldiers were asleep.

By  Owiny Jolly Tobbias

Two people have been confirmed dead as unknown gunmen attacked the Local Defense Unit (LDU) detach in Opit trading centre, Lakwana Sub County, Gulu district.

The gunmen are said to have accessed the LDU detach from the rear and seized the armoury at around 3:00am on Friday. They fled with eight AK47 guns and unidentified rounds of ammunition while the soldiers were asleep.

New Vision established that the gunmen killed a UPDF officer and a five-year old identified as Haggai Okullo, son of the detach intelligence officer,  Tom Ochen during the fire exchange.

 pit ocal efence nit detach under lpha atalion that was attacked on riday Opit Local Defence Unit detach under Alpha Batalion that was attacked on Friday

 

Isaac Otim, a trader and resident of Opit Upper centre who spoke to New Vision said at around 11:00pm while they harvested white ants, he saw three gunmen in long jackets and spoke with a strange Kiswahili accent and thought they were UPDF soldiers on patrol.

"I thought of alerting the quarter guard that was nearby but ignored. However, it was less than an hour after I went to sleep at around 03:22am when I heard the first gun shot," Otim said.

  officers patrolling pit pper trading centre 200 metres from the  army detach that was raided by the gunmen UPDF officers patrolling Opit Upper trading centre, 200 metres from the UPDF army detach that was raided by the gunmen.

 

Lt. Ahmad Hassan Kato, the UPDF 4th Division army spokesperson called upon the locals in the area to liaise with both the army and police officers who have been deployed in the area to aid investigations and arrest of the thugs.

"We lost one soldier and a 5 year old boy, eight guns and unspecified rounds of ammunition in the attack. Our team have been dispatched to pursue the attackers and I urge the public to remain calm and supportive," Kato said.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});