More than 100 Ugandan rebels attacked a refugee camp in the north of the country, but the number of casualties was not immediately clear, aid workers said today.
The fighters from the cult-like Lords Resistance Army (LRA) raided the sprawling settlement last night in Agoro sub-county, Kitgum district, which borders Sudan.
"This was a major attack involving more than 100 LRA rebels who crossed the border," a senior aid worker said.
"The number of dead is unknown at this stage," he said, adding that the rebels also looted food from the camp.
Uganda's army spokesman in the north, Lieutenant Tabaro Kiconco, said he could not confirm the report. "I do not have that information, I will find out," he said.
Both sides in one of Africa's longest-running conflicts have stepped up attacks in recent months after tentative peace talks stalled in February.
The LRA, which has never given a clear account of its aims, is notorious for massacring civilians, mutilating survivors and kidnapping children to serve as fighters and sex slaves.
In the LRA's worst recent attack, more than 250 people were shot, hacked and burned to death in Lira district in February, 2004.
Its leader Joseph Kony is thought to be hiding in the lawless mountains of southern Sudan. Kitgum district, where the latest attack took place, is 450 kilometres north of the capital Kampala.