LIRA, UGANDA: UPDF has confirmed that an applicant collapsed and died on Wednesday during the recruitment exercise of Local Defence Unit (LDU) personnel in Lira City.
The deceased, Solomon Amone, 28, a resident of Adyel Ward in Lira City West Division was among the hundreds of applicants who had turned up for interviews to join the unit.
Amone is said to have collapsed dead shortly after covering 2.5 out of the 5 kilometre run which was set for all recruits to prove their physical fitness before being enrolled into the force.
Flavia Terimulungi, the UPDF 5th Infantry Division spokesperson confirmed the death of the applicant, saying that the deceased might have been on medication for an illness, which they are yet to establish.
“We have picked the body and taken it to Lira Regional Referral Hospital mortuary awaiting a post-mortem to establish the actual cause of his death,” she said.
“But we suspect that he might have been having underlying medical conditions which became worse when he was subjected to physical exercises,” Maj Terimulungi added. Advertisement
Over 1,000 youth from Lira City, Lira, Alebtong, and Dokolo districts turned up at the recruitment centre at Railways Primary School playground.
“We recruited 65 youth from Alebtong, 53 from Dokolo and 117 from both Lira District and Lira City and the exercise for the nine districts in Lango Sub-region which started today (Wednesday) will go on up to Friday because we have a high number of candidates,” Maj Terimulungi said.
Recruitment of LDUs for the remaining districts of Otuke, Oyam, Kole, Amolatar, Kwania, and Apac will be conducted on Thursday and Friday in Lira.
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