By DPA
Kampala : A Ugandan military helicopter pilot has been killed and four soldiers injured when their aircraft crashed in the northeast of the country during a mission to flush out tribal cattle rustlers, according to military sources.
The five were pursuing Karamojong tribesmen over several villages in the Abin district of the remote Karamoja region when the helicopter went down, the sources said.
Army spokesman Major Paddy Ankunda told DPA that an investigation has been launched to establish the cause of the crash, but gave no further details.
Kampala-based Central Broadcasting Service (CBS) radio, however, quoted the area’s military spokesman Lieutenant Deo Akiiki as saying the pilot had tried but failed to propel the helicopter upwards before it crash-landed.
Uganda’s military has since the start of this decade been carrying out air and ground operations to deter the warrior-like Karamojong from carrying out bloody raids for cattle among themselves and neighbouring tribes.
Hundreds of lives have been lost in the incursions and the army is at the moment involved in a forceful disarmament of the warriors.