More than 100 killed as rebels attack refugee camp

Scores of rebels fighting a 17-year insurgency in northern Uganda attacked a camp for displaced people, killing more than 100 people, a Roman Catholic priest said today.

Armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army attacked Barloonyo camp in Uganda’s Lira district late last night, burning huts and shooting people as they fled, said the Rev Sebhat Ayele, who visited the camp today.

Ayele said he counted 121 bodies and was told another 51 had already been buried.

Army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza confirmed the attack, but said he did not know the death toll.

He said it was possible that more than 100 people were killed in the camp, which was home to about 5,000 people, 16 miles north of Lira town.

It was not possible to contact the Lord’s Resistance Army, a shadowy group that has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, since he came to power in 1986 after a five-year bush war.

“I saw one hut with seven family members still burning and three (people) in the next hut were also still burning,” Ayele said by telephone from Lira, 155 miles north of Uganda.