Rebels kill 5 in Uganda
2004-11-05 22:06
Kampala - Suspected Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels ambushed three government vehicles in northeast Uganda on Thursday evening, killing five people and wounding others, including wife of a Kenyan assistant minister, police confirmed.
"Yesterday (Thursday) at 16:00, suspected LRA rebels ambushed three government vehicles at Achaitii Bridge in Olilim Sub-County of northeast Uganda, during which they killed five people, including a soldier, and government officials," police spokesperson Asuman Mugenyi told AFP by telephone on Friday.
"Those injured included Juliana Awuma, Ugandan wife of Kenyan assistant water minister John Munyes, who was heading for the capital, Kampala, from her parental home in northeastern Uganda.
"Awuma was shot in both thighs and was admitted at Soroti district hospital in critical condition," Mugenyi added.
He said that the vehicles came under attack and some of the passengers run into the bush for safety, while others took cover inside the vehicles, when they were sprayed with bullets before being set ablaze with the occupants inside.
The LRA, which has been battling President Yoweri Museveni's secular government since 1988 to replace it with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments, has been operating mainly in northern Ugandan, where they have killed and maimed hundreds of thousands and displaced 1.6 million others and forced them to live in squalid camps dotting the region.
They had one-time extended their operations to northeast Uganda, but were ejected by Ugandan government forces.