Several thousand Ugandans marched through the northern town of Lira on Wednesday to demand better protection from the army after rebels massacred more than 200 people at the weekend, witnesses said.
Waving placards that said "Stop the War" and "Peace Must Return," they protested against the attack by Lord's Resistance Army rebels on a camp outside the town on Saturday.
"People are helpless, they feel isolated since they are not being protected," said a march organiser, the deputy speaker of Lira District Council, Patrick Odwar.
"We only want peace, the government must come in and help us because we don't want more violence," he said.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has accused local army commanders of failing to prevent the attack by rebels who rampaged through Barlonyo, a camp for people uprooted by fighting which lies 30 km (18 miles) north-east of Lira.
Museveni has since replaced the local commander and relocated his headquarters to a new site in northern Uganda, hoping to bolster an army offensive to crush the LRA, led by self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony.
Museveni says the death toll from the attack was 80 civilians and four militiamen who were defending the camp, but a local parliament member quoted camp authorities as saying at least 239 people died, making it one of the worst LRA attacks in years.
The LRA has been fighting a 17-year-old rebellion saying it wants to win a better life for the northern Acholi people, although it has not issued a clear statement of its demands.
The movement, which has abducted thousands of children for use as sex slaves and fighters, has defied repeated attempts by the army to crush it, exploiting the long grass, swamps and forests of the north to wage a guerrilla-style war.
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