Army Strikes Displace 5,000

KAMPALA, Tuesday — Up to 5,000 people in northeastern Uganda have been left homeless after their homes were torched by troops deployed to disarm local herders, a Roman Catholic priest has said.“Some people are missing and we suspect that mainly the elderly were burnt in the homes since Saturday,” Fred Marmolajo of the Mill Hill Fathers told AFP. The government sent troops to Karamoja last December to disarm local tribes in a bid to stop violent cattle rustling. On Monday, an army spokesman said troops had killed 13 tribal warriors who engaged soldiers in a fight as they resisted the seizure of their guns. Marmolajo said displaced people in the southern part of Panyangara parish had sought refuge in towns and at the parish headquarters. He said the burnt villages were Lomokole, Ila, Lodera, Lopotok, Nampumpum, Kamor, Nakal and Nawapip. Army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said the homes probably caught fire when Karimojong warriors fired rocket-propelled grenades at soldiers. AFP