UGANDA:Seventy-two people, mostly Ugandan soldiers, were killed and another 41 injured, many seriously, when their truck crashed into a concrete barrier in the east of the country, an army spokesman said yesterday.
The death toll from the truck carrying the soldiers and their relatives was one of the highest the Ugandan army has suffered in peacetime.
"It was a trailer and the soldiers were changing location from eastern Uganda. Apparently, no one escaped unhurt," Major Felix Kulayigye said.
Fifty-seven soldiers together with 13 of their wives and two children travelling on the truck died in the crash late on Sunday in Uganda's mountainous east, he said. "It's really tragic. A team has been sent to investigate the exact cause of the incident."
Fatal road crashes are common in Africa, where many vehicles are poorly-maintained, safety is often a low priority and roads frequently are potholed.
The state-owned New Vision newspaper said that the collision took place at Kapchogo village near Mount Elgon, which straddles the border with Kenya. The injured were taken to Mbale and Kapchorwa hospitals.
It quoted the police chief in Kapchorwa as saying that the brakes on the truck had failed as it went down a hill.
Concrete barriers are set along the winding road from Kapchorwa to the capital, Kampala, to stop vehicles careering off the edge of the road.
The newspaper said that Uganda's military had recently transferred more troops to the border area to counter a threat from cattle-raiding Pokot warriors from Kenya.
The army has deployed heavily in Uganda's lawless east over the past few months to combat cattle raids and inter-clan warfare between nomadic tribes.