Kampala
An international relief agency yesterday said the number of civilians killed by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels in the north eastern DR Congo since they started raiding villages on Christmas Day is more than 400.
Caritas, a Catholic relief agency which has been supplying the LRA with food and medicine in Garamba, South Sudan, said in a report yesterday that “over 400 people have been killed in the attacks in an area of northern Congo including Faradje, Duru, Gurba, Doruma, and Province Orientale.”
“The director of Caritas, Dungu-Doruma, says that the Ugandan rebels attacked a Christmas Day concert in Faradje City organised by the Catholic Church there,” the statement said. “He says the rebels returned the next morning to continue their killing spree.
He says approximately 150 people were killed over the two days,” the charity said. “At the same time, another attack was perpetrated in Duru, north of Dungu. Caritas reports 75 people killed and the church burned down,” it added.
Troops from Uganda and DR Congo have launched a military operation in the stricken region to find LRA leader Joseph Kony, who is wanted by a International Criminal Court at The Hague. Although the UPDF claims to have killed 13 rebels, the attack on the LRA has worsened peace, security and humanitarian conditions in DR Congo and other LRA-affected regions, although northern Uganda remains largely peaceful.
Caritas reported that killings continued along the Sudan border, including in Bangadi, Doruma and Gurba. Approximately 6,500 people have found refuge in the area with the Catholic Church, the charity said.
It added that children were being abducted by the LRA, who use them as child soldiers. But LRA deputy peace delegation chairman and Kony’s confidant, Justine Labeja, denied the Caritas report implicating LRA.
“LRA has been in DRC for over two years; DRC government knew we were there. How come they did not accuse us of killing people?” Mr Labeja said.
Yesterday, UPDF announced a Ugandan soldier was on Sunday shot dead by a UN Peace keeper at Isiro, the allied forces’ headquarters. The soldier aged 26, at the rank of a private, was reportedly shot in a friendly fire exchange.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/LRA_death_toll_hits_400_77525.shtml
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
