Students riot after first-year is shot dead

Unknown gunmen have killed a student at Makerere University, sparking riots that led to the arrest of scores of students and several soldiers who fired on rioting students.

Students blocked roads leading to the university and burnt vehicles. They also looted delivery trucks and attacked a police post but were repelled by policemen who called for military assistance.

Alex Adiga, a first-year education student, was shot outside a student hostel, the fifth student to be murdered at Makerere in the past five months. The Uganda People's Congress, one of the main opposition parties in the forthcoming general election, blamed the government for insecurity at the university.

Fifty students face charges for rioting and destroying private property. Some were among the injured when the anti-riot police fired tear-gas and rubber bullets.