Uganda: Hunter Spears Colleague


New Vision (Kampala)

3 March 2008
Posted to the web 4 March 2008

Dennis Ojwee
Kampala

A HUNTER in Gulu accidentally speared a colleague to death while trying to help him kill an animal.

Omal, 26, of the Ot-Ngec clan in Acet parish in Odek sub-county was reportedly killed last week by his colleague only identified as Ojok of the Langol clan in Binya parish in the wilderness.


Ojok threw his spear towards an animal but the spear hit a tree branch which deflected it and landed on Omal's chest.

He died instantly.

The incident occurred at Gun-Gung forest where over 100 youth from clans drawn from four sub-counties in Omoro county had converged for the dry season hunting expedition.

The five-square-miles-natural forest is about four miles north of Lalogi sub-county headquarters, bordering Lalogi and Odek sub-counties.

This happened two days after a grisly incident where a trader, Charles Olwoch, set ablaze a grass-thatched hut at Awere internally displaced camp, also in Odek sub-county.

The fire killed 10 people including Olwoch's wife and his two-year-old daughter.


The Odek LC3 chairman, Martin Olobo, described the death as an "unfortunate".

"There were no reports of any personal grudge between Omal and Ojok or inter-clan misunderstandings. But the clan elders had to intervene to avoid inter-clan conflicts."

The officer in-charge of criminal investigations at Gulu Central Police Station, Richard Oceng, said he was following up the matter and investigations into the circumstances of the death were in progress.