Campus guarded after five deaths

Uganda's largest public university, Makerere, is under 24-hour armed guard after the deaths by shooting of five students during the last academic year.

Policemen, regular and special army units are on duty at the university. All vehicles entering the main gate are stopped and searched and pedestrians have to produce identity cards.

The university's security chief said: "The security will be there until we are sure that there are no more threats."

Yoweri Museveni, Uganda's president, ordered the deployment of security forces after a public outcry and a student riot forced him to visit the room of a girl shot dead by gunmen.

Students besieged the parliament buildings in Kampala that house the president's office. During the protests, students took coffins from carpentry workshops and tried to force the university dean into one before he was rescued by police.

In April, a female student was killed by a gunman who fired through the keyhole after she refused to open the door. Two other students were gunned down at the entrance of their halls. A fourth student was killed outside the university, while a fifth was shot in Kampala.

No explanation has been found for the deaths.