Rebels kill 35 people in Uganda

At least 35 people have been ‘slaughtered’ in an attack by Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels on a displaced people’s camp in northern Uganda, UN aid officials and a priest have said.

Over one million people have been displaced by the fighting

“The rebels attacked Kalo-Obong Internal Displaced People’s camp in Kitgum district towards midnight on Thursday, killed 35 people, and 10 others were admitted at Kitgum Hospital with injuries,” Farah Muktar, an official at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters on Friday.

A Roman Catholic priest in Kitgum, Father Joseph Garnar, confirmed the attack. “We have not gathered detailed information about the attack, but many people were hacked to death, while others were burnt in their huts,” Garnar said. 

The LRA has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni’s secular government since 1988. 

It says its battle is aimed at setting up a government in
Kampala based on the biblical Ten Commandments, but the rebel group is best known for its brutality against civilians and the kidnapping of young boys, who are recruited into rebel ranks, and girls who are used as sex slaves for rebel commanders. 

Over 1.5 million people have been displaced by the
fighting and live in squalid camps dotted around north Uganda. 

The conflict in northern Uganda has been called the worst
forgotten humanitarian crisis on Earth by a top UN official.

Source: AFP