There are varying reports on the number of people who died in the massacre. While a European aid worker told Associated Press that the number stood at 100, the Congolese military put it at between 120 and 150. U.N.-run Radio Okapi quoted the governor of Congo's Oriental Province, Medard Autsai Senga, as saying the death toll had surpassed 75 bodies and more were still being discovered around the church.

The LRA has however refuted the allegations, saying that the Uganda army is responsible for the killings because the rebels do not have an army in that area. Yet the rebels seem to have been identified by eyewitnesses who said that the attackers wore dreadlocks, spoke the Acholi language and there were a big number of boys among them. The rebels are notorious for requiting boys in their ranks of fighters.

LRA Spokesman David Matsanga claimed that Uganda's 105th Battalion was responsible for the killings. “They were airlifted to Congo to kill civilians and then say we are responsible. They want to justify their stay in DRC (Congo) and loot minerals from there like they did before,” he had said from Nairobi.

Spokesman for Uganda army, Capt. Chris Magezi said survivors and witnesses described a massacre at the church near Congo's border with Sudan as most hideous. “The scene at the church was horrendous. Bodies of mostly women and children that were cut into pieces lay on the floor,” Magezi said, adding that this is the area where Uganda, Congolese and Sudanese armies began an offensive this month to rout out the Ugandan rebels.

Magezi appealed for aid for survivors as reports said further hundreds of people had fled south, deeper into Congo, while the majority of people from Doruma were taking refuge at Naparka, about 37 miles to the south.

Observers have said that the rebels appear to be attacking civilians in retaliation for recent military attacks by the three countries.

Peace talks between the LRA and the Ugandan government have yet to be concluded even after going on for almost two years with LRA leaders Joseph Kony and his lieutenants seeking guarantees they will not be arrested under international warrants.

Kony and his close assistants are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 20 years of Africa’s longest civil war.