Attackers kill more than 190 civilians in Uganda

Suspected rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have massacred civilians at a refugee camp in northern Uganda, sources said Sunday, with a local politician putting the death toll at 192.
The attackers torched many of the homes in Barlonyo displaced people's camp near the town of Lira in the assault late Saturday that lasted three hours, said local member of parliament Charles Angiro.
He said after visiting the scene that 192 people were killed, adding that a soldier and five government militiamen known as "Amukas" also died.
"When I went there, we confirmed 192 people killed, and many of the casualties died of fire as the rebels rounded up people and forced them into grass-thatched houses before they set them on fire," he told AFP by telephone. Earlier this month at another camp near Lira, LRA rebels killed about 50 people after infiltrating the facility disguised as government troops.
A 17-year-old rebel war in northern Uganda has displaced over 1.2 million people, who currently live in congested and squalid conditions in camps set up by the army.
Angiro said the rebels first engaged the local militia Saturday in a firefight before they raided the camp.
"Children were not spared and many of the bodies we saw were of children," he added. He said 480 huts were set ablaze, leaving almost 5,000 people left without shelter.
Roman Catholic missionary Sebat Ayala told AFP earlier by telephone from Lira that 173 people had died.
"I have just been there, and I have managed to confirm that 173 people were killed of which 57 had already been buried while others were still burning in their houses," said Ayala.
Army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said: "I can confirm that there was a massacre in a displaced people's camp and people were burnt in their houses".
He was not immediately able to provide an accurate death toll.
According to the head of Lira government hospital Jane Achieng, 56 people were admitted for burns, gunshot and shrapnel wounds and cuts.
The army claims that by housing the displaced in these camps, it is able to guard them against rebel abductions conducted by the LRA to fill its fighting ranks.