The Department of Foreign Affairs has advised Irish tourists to exercise caution in visiting Uganda at the moment, and has warned them to stay away from areas where there is civil unrest.
"There is no reason not to travel to Uganda," said a spokesman for the Department. "This looks like an isolated incident. But there are areas of the country where there is civil unrest, and people should not travel to border areas with Rwanda and the Congo." There are no Irish tourists in Uganda at the moment, but they are frequently among those who travel there.
None of the Irish tour companies offers packaged tours to Uganda, but, according to Ms Mary McCormack of the International Travel Bureau in Dublin, many travel agencies will put together a package for clients using British-based companies.
One of the companies which regularly does so is Maxwell Travel in Dublin, which specialises in trekking and activity holidays.
"We do have a programme to Uganda," said Ms Anna Maxwell, "but we have no one out there at the moment because it's the rainy season there, with 20 to 21 inches of rain. The next people we have going out there are going in July."
Asked why people visit Uganda, given its proximity to war zones and the prevalence of AIDS, Ms Maxwell said they went to see the wildlife in its natural habitat, especially the gorillas. The company used by Maxwell Travel is Explore World Wide in Aldershot, England.
This company was also involved in the tour to Yemen which ended in kidnapping and death for some tourists last year. It immediately cancelled its Yemen programme, according to Ms Maxwell. "I had one girl on that programme, but she changed her booking to another week seven weeks before she left," she told The Irish Times.
Asked if Explore World Wide had cancelled its programme to Uganda in the light of the killings there, a spokesman for the company, Mr Nick Amstead, said it had not taken a decision yet and the matter was still under review, in the light of the events still taking place.