A total of 45 households in Amuru district have been left homeless after a fire gutted their huts destroying household property.
The Saturday morning incident happened in Okidi center A and B villages in Atiak Sub-county.
Eyewitnesses said the fire spread from a nearby bush that was set ablaze by locals early in the morning.
Attiak Sub County LC3 Chairperson, Mr Wilfred Odiya Baguma confirmed the incident in an interview with Acholi Times over the weekend.
He said the affected families are in need of food and shelter.
Mr Baguma explained that the fire destroyed food crops that the affected families had just harvested and stored in their houses.
“We are calling on the urgent intervention of district leaders and the disaster preparedness Ministry to help these affected locals with relief food and temporary shelter,” Baguma said.
According to Mr Baguma, currently some of the affected families are living with their relatives with no means of constructing shelter because grasses they could have used to thatch the roofs of their huts have all been touched, as is often the practice in Acholi during the dry season.
However, Baguma blamed charcoal dealers for the outbreak of the fire
“We know our locals are also negligent, they like burning bushes, but the cause of fire, we established that some charcoal burners were behind it.”
The District Chairperson Mr Michael lakony could not be reached for comment as his known phone number wasn’t available by press time.
