Riots rock Iganga over ritual murder

newvision.co.ug

Thursday, 24th March, 2011

By George Bita

and Donald Kiirya

RESIDENTS of Iganga municipality yesterday rioted and burnt up a traditional healer’s shrine after a child’s corpse was discovered in a nearby bush.

The body of 14-year-old Saida Nantumbwe, a P.7 pupil of Bulubandi Primary School, had been mutilated. The private parts, tongue and breasts were missing.

Residents became furious after Police sniffer dogs led the search team to Yakut Mulyangege’s shrine in Nabidongha ward B.

The LCI chairman, Samuel Magumba, said: “After the Police arrested Mulyangege at about 10:00am, residents, who wanted to lynch him, attempted to grab him. However, the Police blocked them, which made turn violent.

The mob, which consisted of mainly the youth, took to the main street at about midday, obstructing the traffic flow on the Jinja-Tororo highway. The Police moved in and fired teargas to disperse the crowd.

However, the youth re-grouped and engaged the Police in running battles as they lit up fires on the road to stop vehicles from moving through the town.

Although calm had been restored by last evening, the Police kept patrolling the area. A total of 30 people, who were arrested in the violent riots, remained in Police custody.

Samson Lubega, the regional Police spokesman, said the standoff was prolonged after some of the youth were arrested. Read more…

Informations

Iganga is a town in Eastern Uganda. It is the main municipal, administrative and commercial center of Iganga District and the district headquarters are located there. The district is named after the town.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 25 mars 2011.

Publié dans émeutes