2010.07.13: Peace Corps volunteer Laura C. Corcoran OK after Uganda bombings
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2010.07.13: Peace Corps volunteer Laura C. Corcoran OK after Uganda bombings
Peace Corps volunteer Laura C. Corcoran OK after Uganda bombings
Laura C. Corcoran has been working with the Peace Corps in Kasule, Uganda, for almost two years. Although the small African village is more than 150 miles from the site of the bombings in Uganda's capital, Kampala, Corcoran's father, Patrick, said she, her brother-in-law and a high school friend were traveling to Kampala when the terrorists attacks happened. "We're concerned, and yet we realize it's a big country. Those things are a very localized thing ... The thing that is fortunate is she has cell phone communication, and she called," Patrick said. The trio are in Kampala, where Patrick said they are not allowed to leave until a travel restriction is lifted.
Peace Corps volunteer Laura C. Corcoran OK after Uganda bombings
Local Peace Corps volunteer OK after Uganda bombings
BY JONA ISON • Gazette Staff Writer •
July 13, 2010
Caption: Paramedics attend to Ugandan citizens injured during an explosion, at Mulago Hospital in Uganda's capital Kampala July 11, 2010. Bomb blasts ripped through two separate bars packed with soccer fans watching the World Cup final in Kampala, killing at least 23 people and signalling a possible link to Somali Islamists. REUTERS/Benedicte Desrus
A trio of locals are safe in Uganda after terrorists killed at least 74 people in a pair of bombings Monday.
Laura C. Corcoran has been working with the Peace Corps in Kasule, Uganda, for almost two years. Although the small African village is more than 150 miles from the site of the bombings in Uganda's capital, Kampala,
Corcoran's father, Patrick, said she, her brother-in-law and a high school friend were traveling to Kampala when the terrorists attacks happened.
"We're concerned, and yet we realize it's a big country. Those things are a very localized thing ... The thing that is fortunate is she has cell phone communication, and she called," Patrick said.
The trio are in Kampala, where Patrick said they are not allowed to leave until a travel restriction is lifted.
A Somalian al-Qaida-linked militia, al-Shaba, has claimed responsibility for the twin bombings during the World Cup. Investigators believe the bombings, one at a rugby club and the other an Ethiopian restaurant, were the work of suicide bombers.
"We warned Uganda not to deploy troops to Somalia; they ignored us," said Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, al-Shabab's spokesman. "We warned them to stop massacring our people, and they ignored that. The explosions in Kampala were only a minor message to them. ... We will target them everywhere if Uganda does not withdraw from our land."
At least one American from a California-based aid group is among the dead and three wounded are from a Pennsylvania church group.
The Peace Corps issued a statement Monday that all 120 of its members in Uganda are safe and accounted for. The Peace Corps has an education project and a community health project underway in Uganda.
Corcoran has been working at the Kasule Health Center III which consists of an outpatient clinic and a maternity ward that serves 11,000 people.
She also has worked to help establish an orphanage and repair rain collection tanks. Students at Bishop Flaget have raised funds to help Corcoran, an alum of the school, and become pen pals with some of the students she helps.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: July, 2010; Peace Corps Uganda; Directory of Uganda RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Uganda RPCVs; Safety and Security of Volunteers; Terrorism
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Story Source: Chilloco Gazette
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Uganda; Safety; Terrorism
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