LRA deputy chief 'missing'
2007-11-07 10:34
Nairobi - The deputy chief of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels is missing after a dispute within the group over stuttering peace talks with the government, says a southern Sudan official.
A top official from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which governed the semi-autonomous region of southern Sudan, said: "As of now, Vincent Otti is missing ... we do not know whether he is dead or alive."
The official, who requested to remain unnamed, said Otti went missing after feuding LRA factions last month clashed over the fate of peace talks with Ugandan government aimed at ending two decades of insurgency.
The SPLM was the only movement that had regular contact with the LRA leaders who were hiding in jungles in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo and southern Sudan.
The main Ugandan newspapers, quoting intelligence sources, on Wednesday reported that Otti was executed last month along with his key allies in Garamba National Park.
Otti, who alongside LRA supremo Joseph Kony and two other commanders facing ICC indictments, was a long-time deputy and public face of the notoriously brutal LRA rebels.
He was wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.