UPDF will attack LRA rebels if they enter Uganda

In an interview yesterday, the UPDF spokesperson, Maj Paddy Ankunda said the army will not hesitate to attack LRA rebels should they dare enter Uganda. “We are prepared. Should they cross to Uganda we shall attack them directly,” Maj Ankunda told Daily Monitor by telephone, adding:

“The only thing that will guarantee the LRA safety is to sign the peace agreement”.

Source: Daily Monitor report - Kony attacks SPLA as UPDF stay on alert - by Yasiin Mugerwa & Agencies, Kampala, September 22, 2008

Ugandan LRA rebels attacked military base in S. Sudan

Photo: The LRA are notorious for abducting children and mutilating victims

Source: Sep 20, 2008 BBC report "Uganda rebels in surprise attack". Copy:

Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels have carried out a surprise attack on a military base in southern Sudan.

There are also separate reports of LRA raids on three villages just over the nearby border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Roman Catholic priests in the region say the rebels abducted more than 50 children and burned down houses.

The fighting broke out despite pledges by the rebels that they would sign a peace deal with the Ugandan government.

The BBC's Africa analyst David Bamford says instability in the region appears to be growing as moves to persuade LRA leaders to sign the agreement falter.

See a map of LRA bases in DR Congo and recent attacks

The LRA has led a rebellion against the government for more than 20 years which has left some two million people displaced.

The group has relocated to camps on the Sudan-DR Congo border for the last two years during peace negotiations.

Earlier this month, the Congolese army sent troops to the region to try to protect civilians from the rebels.

'Surprise attack'

A senior official in southern Sudan's Western Equatoria State government, Colonel Joseph Ngere, said the barracks attack involved about 100 LRA rebels.

He said it came as a complete surprise, adding that the rebels had also attacked the nearby village of Sakure.

The attacks in DR Congo are reported in the villages of Duru, Nambia and Kiliwa.

Several civilians are reported to have been killed.

Congolese troops have been reinforced in a nearby town.

In April, LRA leader Joseph Kony refused to sign a peace deal agreed to by his representatives after nearly two years of talks.

Mr Kony was said to have not signed the April agreement because he was seeking guarantees about arrest warrants from the
International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Last weekend, an LRA spokesman told the BBC the rebels were willing to sign the agreement but would not disarm until the ICC indictments were lifted.

The LRA leader is accused of numerous war crimes, including abducting and mutilating civilians and forcing thousands of children into combat.

Recent reports say he has set up six new bases in northern DR Congo and is running diamond mines in the Central African Republic.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7625515.stm

Map of attacks and LRA base - DR Congo's army has sent 200 troops to Dungu, DRC

Earlier this month, the Democratic Republic of Congo's army and the UN began a military operation to try to contain the activities of Ugandan LRA terrorist group leader Joseph Kony.



Source: BBC News 'Rebel leader targeted in DR Congo' report dated Monday, 8 September 2008. Excerpts:

The campaign follows failed attempts to negotiate an end to the rebellion by his Lord's Resistance Army.

Congo's army has sent 200 troops to the northern town of Dungu, where hundreds have sought refuge from the LRA.

The LRA fought a 20-year war against the government in northern Uganda. Some two million people were displaced.

Note, the report says Mr Kony is thought to have been rebuilding his forces.

Also note, as stated here many times before, the USA treats the LRA as a terrorist organisation and, in my view, rightly so.

One wonders about the financing and arming of the LRA over the past 20 years. How come, in this day age, the sources of funding, armaments and munitions for African rebel groups manage to remain such a secret over the past twenty years? I wish professional journalists would tell us because it would help make sense of what is going on in and around Africa and why.

[Cross posted to parent site Sudan Watch and sister sites Congo Watch, Niger Watch]