A fire killed at least six people and destroyed more than 500 huts in Uganda on today when it swept through a camp for people uprooted by a civil war, a Ugandan radio station reported.
Army officials in the northern region could not confirm the reports of deaths, but said a blaze had destroyed about 100 makeshift homes in Lira district's remote Erute camp.
They denied it was started in an attack by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. "A fire started in a rubbish heap and was lashed by the wind, blowing embers onto the nearby homes," a senior Ugandan intelligence officer said.
KFM Radio said at least six people were believed killed and 500 huts burned down at the camp, about 320 km north of the capital Kampala.
Fires are common in the dry season in the camps, where people shelter from clashes between the military and the LRA, which has waged an 18-year-old war against the government.
Uganda's government is holding tentative peace talks with the LRA, but fighting resumed this month after a lull of several weeks, and the army says it has killed 28 rebels in two clashes further north in Kitgum district since Monday.