Around 20 Karamojong cattle keeprs and two Ugandan army soldiers have been killed in clashes in northeastern Uganda, an army spokesman said today.
Major Shaban Bantariza told AFPby telephone that Karamojong cattle keepers from the Jie clan raided the rival Bokola clan on Tuesday and drove off around 1,000 heads of cattle.
But the Ugandan army pursued them and recovered the stolen cattle after a two-day battle at Moru Apolon, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Kenyan border.
"We have since the beginning of the week killed 20 Karamojong men from the Jie clan who decided to engage the army in a battle to defend the cattle they had stolen from the Bokola," Mr Bantariza said, without giving the number injured in the fighting.
Asked about newspaper reports that the army had lost 30 soldiers in the two-day battle, Mr Bantariza said: "In fact, we lost only two soldiers."
AFP