UN food trucks ambushed

2003-08-15 22:01

Geneva - Rebels have attacked trucks carrying aid supplies in northeastern Uganda and the fate of three drivers and two children traveling with them is unknown, the UN food agency said on Friday.

The three trucks were discovered with their cabins burnt following the attack on Thursday evening in the Karamoja region, said World Food Program spokesperson Christiane Berthiaume. The aid was untouched but there was no sign of the three men or of two boys who were with them.

She said the attack had been by rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army.

"WFP condemns this attack and appeals to the rebels to respect basic humanitarian principles," she said. "This incident unfortunately demonstrates the difficulties that WFP encounters in coming to the aid of the thousands of people who depend on food aid to survive."

The vehicles had left the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and were heading for the town of Moroto with enough food to feed 4 300 people for a month. It was the first time that rebels had attacked an aid convoy in this part of the country and the trucks had no military escort, Berthiaume said.

"WFP is in close contact with the military in the region and they are in the process of unloading the trucks and reloading the supplies onto other commercial trucks. They will be taken, with a military escort, to their destination in Moroto, she said.

WFP says 820 000 people in the Karamoja region need aid to help them survive following conflict and drought.

The Lord's Resistance Army are leftovers of a northern rebellion that began after Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, seized power in 1986.

The insurgency has forced some 860 000 people to flee their homes; camps for displaced people are often attacked by the rebels who loot, kill and abduct people.

Museveni's government has tried to draw the rebels - whose leader Joseph Kony claims to possess special spiritual powers - into peace talks. But the rebels, who claim they are defending the interests of the people of northern Uganda, have refused government conditions.

- AP