KAMPALA, Oct. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Over 1,500 Sudanese refugees, mostly women and children, have entered Moyo district in northern Uganda, reported The New Vision newspaper on Saturday.

    Officials from the Office of the Ugandan Prime Minister were quoted as saying that the Sudanese refugees were camped under trees and temporary grass tents around Palorinya refugee transit camp as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee and the Office of the Prime Minister screened them.

    The number of refugees kept rising in the last few days and the Office of the Prime Minister had already granted refugees status to over 1,500 newcomers.

    Some refugees said they came from as far as Kotilili, some 50 km south of Juba town.

    Refugees said they were forced to flee their homes due to harassment from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels who were looting food in southern Sudan.

    "We walked from Kotilili for a week because of the children whowalk slowly. We feared the LRA, who have resorted to looting food,burning houses and killing and that is why we have left our villages in the Sudan," an elderly refugee said.

    LRA rebels, based in southern Sudan, have fought the Ugandan government in their 18-year rebellion, displacing over 1.6 civilians in northern Uganda alone. Enditem