Lightning on Sunday struck dead a South Sudanese mother and her three daughters in a refugee settlement in north Uganda's Yumbe District.

Office of the Prime Minister officer Solomon Osakan said the tragedy happened in Village Four, Block 4, Zone II in Bidi-Bidi refugee settlement .

He identified the deceased as Ms Jennifer Dusman, 26, and her three children Mary Kadi, 6, Reinda Jokudu, 5, and Scovia Yeno, 4.

The incident

Yumbe District police commander Musoke Abubakar confirmed the incident, which occurred at about 2am (+3GMT) during a heavy downpour.

“Police visited the scene and bodies were taken to Yumbe hospital for postmortem,” Mr Musoke said.

Mr Kenneth Remo, a neighbour said: “We rushed to the scene only to find the house burning. We tried to rescue them but all our efforts were fruitless.”

Fled fighting

Bidi Bidi settlement currently hosts over 274,000 refugees who fled fighting in South Sudan.

The South Sudan crisis started in 2013 following a fallout between President Salva Kiir and former vice-president Riek Machar.