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Friday, 21 January, 2005, 20:20 GMT

Fire engulfs Uganda refugee camp

A fire at a refugee camp in northern Uganda has killed up to six people and left about 10,000 without shelter and very little food.

The fire broke out on Friday afternoon at the Agweng camp in a remote part of northern Lira district, destroying half the camp in about half an hour.

A doctor working there said the flames had spread very rapidly in the wind.

The conflict in north Uganda has forced more than 1.6 million people into camps living in squalid conditions.

Harvest destroyed

"People have lost all their belongings... and now they are fearing for what they will eat," Karen Bevan-Mogg of the humanitarian agency Medecins sans Frontieres told the BBC's Will Ross in Kampala.

This month, camp residents have been harvesting from the fields - storing their crops in sacks or up on the roofs to dry in the sun, she said.

After the flames died down, people tried to rescue what they could from the flattened houses and smouldering heaps of harvest.

There were no emergency services to put out the fire, which in the end died down naturally.

Ms Bevan-Mogg said there were surprisingly few casualties from among the 26,000 inhabitants. Up to six people had died - trapped in the inferno; most of the other injuries were superficial burns.

The homeless will be sleeping out in the open until relief agencies arrive with aid and plastic sheeting over the weekend, she said.

During the 18-year-war in northern Uganda, a rebel group, the Lords Resistance Army, has abducted over 20,000 children and most people have been forced to flee their homes, leaving a traumatised population.



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