Uganda's religious leaders have asked the United Nations to intervene in the brutal 17-year civil war in the north. Gunmen from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) killed at least 40 people last week near the north-eastern town of Lira, officials say.
Some 3,000 people have fled to Lira town following the upsurge in violence.
The rebels are responsible for abducting thousands of children during the war, which the religious leaders say is being "forgotten" by the world.
"We are aware that this is a war that has remained for long in the dark, and which fits in the category of the world's forgotten conflicts," the leaders told visiting UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland.
The Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI) also urged the Ugandan Government and the LRA rebels to resume negotiations to end the war.
"The United Nations (should) play a great role in scaling down the violence by placing peace observers in the conflict areas," they said.
'Victims beheaded'
An army spokesman said the latest attacks seemed to be an act of revenge for the killing of rebel commander Charles Tabuley last month.
Lira district resident commissioner Charles Egou told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that the 3,000 people were being housed in displaced person's camps in the area.
"Scores of civilians were killed at around midnight on 6 November in Alanyi and Awayopiny villages in Lira district," Lieutenant Chris Magezi said.
Catholic missionary, Father Sabbat Ayele, told the AFP news agency that witnesses had said the rebels had beheaded some of the victims while a number of grass-thatched huts were set on fire.
Thousands of civilians have been killed and more than a million others displaced by the fighting in northern Uganda alone.
Humanitarian organisations say that about 20,000 children have been abducted by the rebels over the last five years, with many taken to LRA bases in southern Sudan, where they are trained as child soldiers while the girls are turned into sex slaves.
