Ugandan school inferno kills six

Six pupils died at a boarding school near the Ugandan city of Jinja, when a fire gutted their dormitory on Monday night while they were sleeping.

The victims were children of officers stationed at Gaddafi Army barracks where Jinja Army Boarding Primary School is located.

An army spokesman promised an inquiry to establish the inferno's cause.

Initial inquiries suggest a charcoal stove caused the fire. The army says it will compensate the families.

"The fire seems to have started from where the dormitory warden left the charcoal stove burning, from where it caught the wall paint and electricity wiring before it burnt the whole building," the spokesman for the barracks, Major Felix Kulaigye, told the BBC's reporter Julius Odeke.

"We want to ascertain the extent of the damage and see how to compensate these people," he added.

All the 270 students who were in the dormitory lost all their belongings.