On September 1, 2003, one of the most notorious atrocities of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency unfolded at Atirir Catholic Mission along the Soroti-Lira road in Katine Sub-county, Teso sub-region.
At about 9:30am, a Gateway Mercedes-Benz bus, registration number UPL 402, was travelling from Namasale towards Soroti Town when it drove into an LRA ambush approximately 12 miles north of Soroti.
The attackers, dressed in military-style attire, opened fire on the approaching bus, shooting at its tyres and forcing the vehicle to stop.
What followed was a massacre.
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The insurgents ordered passengers out of the bus one by one and attacked them with guns, machetes and blunt objects. Several victims were shot at close range, while others were hacked or bludgeoned. Over 20 civilians were reportedly killed at the scene.
Among those killed were Lt. Chris Ruyondo, who served as District Internal Security Officer for Kaberamaido; Catholic priest Fr. Lawrence Oyuru of Ochero; and Edward Ekere, headmaster of Kamidakan Primary School.
Local government officials and other civil servants from Kaberamaido District were also among the victims.
After looting passengers' luggage and belongings, the attackers collected dry thatch from nearby homes, stuffed it inside the bus and set the vehicle ablaze.
A few passengers escaped into the surrounding bushes during the confusion. The flight to safety, however, was itself deadly. Some mothers became separated from their infants, while other fleeing passengers were shot as they tried to disappear into the bush.
The massacre sent shockwaves through Soroti. News of the attack brought the town to a standstill as relatives and residents rushed to Soroti Regional Referral Hospital, searching for survivors and attempting to identify bodies brought in by the military.
The attack also became a major turning point in the security situation in Teso.
The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) launched pursuit operations along the Soroti-Lira corridor, with civilian movement temporarily restricted as security forces established patrols along the road.
The outrage also accelerated the mobilisation of the Arrow Boys, a local civil defence force established to resist LRA attacks in Teso. Local leaders and politicians, including then State Minister for Health Capt. Mike Mukula, pushed for the recruitment, training and deployment of the group as the region sought to confront Joseph Kony's insurgents.
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The LRA commander leading incursions into Teso, "Brigadier" Charles Tabuley, subsequently became a key target. In late October 2003, about two months after the Atirir massacre, UPDF and Arrow Group forces tracked Tabuley to Otuboi in Kaberamaido District, where he was killed during a battle.
Perhaps the most haunting evidence of the Atirir massacre emerged months later.
In November 2003, UPDF troops killed an LRA officer identified as Lt Onono Doctor Chandwang in Kalaki. Military intelligence reportedly recovered a camera containing a roll of film from his body.
When the photographs were developed, they reportedly showed LRA fighters during the Gateway bus attack. The images captured the rebels forcing passengers from the bus, harassing civilians, posing beside the vehicle and watching as it burned.
The photographs provided stark visual evidence of the brutality inflicted on civilians during the insurgency and became a powerful reminder of what happened at Atirir on September 1, 2003.
The massacre remains one of the darkest episodes of the LRA conflict in Teso, a region that endured years of attacks, displacement and insecurity before the insurgency was eventually pushed out of the area.
