Brutal killings in northern Uganda
Eight people were savagely killed and several others wounded when a rebel group, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), attacked a village in northern Uganda, an army spokesman said on Sunday.
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| Children in a camp in Gulu are among 800,000 displaced people |
The rebels used machetes and clubs when they hacked their victims to death, according to Lieutenant Paddy Ankunda, who was speaking from the northern town of Gulu.
“They raided after midnight, broke into houses and indiscriminately killed occupants, before setting ablaze over 100 huts”, he said.
The attack was on Alito village in Kole county of Apac district, about 320 kilometres north of the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
An unspecified number of people were injured in the attack.
The raid prompted Ugandan authorities to deploy troops to the area to hunt down the attackers, according to Ankunda.
“I hope they (army) will catch up with them and give them the punishment they deserve”, he said.
The LRA has been fighting the Ugandan government since 1988.
Its alleged goal is to remove the current government and replace it with a regime that would follow the biblical Ten Commandments.
The rebel group has lately become more brutal against the civilian population of northern Uganda.
Earlier this month, LRA fighters kidnapped a young man and maimed him ignoring pleas that he was neither a soldier nor government agent.
The rebels cut off his ears and lips and wrapped the ears in a letter that warned people against cooperating with government forces.
Such atrocities by the LRA have terrified the civilian population. Over 800,000 are already displaced and live in squalid camps that scattered over the entire northern region.
Meanwhile, a UN Security Council delegation arrived in Kampala on Sunday to discuss with Ugandan leaders ways to end the conflicts plaguing the Great Lakes region.
The delegation, led by French ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, is due to hold talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday.
The talks between the UN security Council ambassadors and the president are expected to focus on the war in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and on the Burundi peace process.
The visit is the final leg of their six-nation tour of the Great Lakes region.
They have already visited South Africa, DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.