Kampala — ABOUT 100 men suspected to be Iteso from Katakwi district on Friday attacked a Karimojong settlement in Moroto district and raped women.

The attackers, suspected to have come from Olilim village in Ngariam sub-county, raided the settlement at Nabwal in Iriiri sub-county in the afternoon.

The UPDF officer in-charge of Iriiri army detachment, Lt. Hillary Opio, said 22 women were tortured, adding that eight of them, including breast-feeding mothers, were raped.

The victims told a team of district officials led by the resident district commissioner, Nahman Ojwee, that the attackers were accompanied by four armed men dressed in uniforms similar to those of the UPDF.

The victims said the men, who were helping the women to set up temporary shelters, took off when they saw the invaders.

There are about 630 households in the area.

"The invaders removed our necklaces, bangles and waist beads before raping us," Sabina Naru, 48, said.

Lucia Angolere, a breast-feeding mother, said the men first checked the sex of their children.

"If my child was a male, it would not have survived. They ordered me to lie down and spread my legs apart before three men raped me," she said.

The area LC3 chairman, John Ogwel, said the invaders arrived from the bushes west of the settlement.

He appealed to the army to arrest the armed men, saying they could be indisciplined soldiers.

The Karimojong, trying to settle in the green belt, were victims of famine in Lokopo, Lopeei and Matany in Bokora county.

The settlement is located on the borderline of Katakwi and Moroto districts, which is a centre of conflict between the Iteso and Karimojong.

The Karimojong say their boundary is about 40km into Katakwi.