'We killed 23 Ugandan rebels'
2004-01-10 13:59
Kampala - The Ugandan army claimed on Saturday that it had killed 23 rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in two major encounters with the insurgents in the north of the country.
"We are about to finish these people. Yesterday (Friday) evening we killed 17 of them including two junior officers in an ambush as they tried to raid Orom in Kitgum district to loot cattle," army spokesperson Lieutenant Chris Magezi said by telephone from the northern Lira town.
"Then five others who were in a group commanded by Vincent Otti (LRA's number two) were killed in a joint infantry and air raid in Palabek," he added. Another rebel was gunned down at Amyel in Pader district, he said.
Twenty-eight children abducted by the rebels were rescued during the battles in Orom and Palabek and several arms, ammunition and communications equipment were seized from the insurgents.
"We are on the offensive and killing these people as they search for food as this has become a scarcity in their area of operation," said Magezi.
In Gulu district, four rebels were captured, army spokesperson Lieutenant Paddy Ankunda said.
The LRA took up arms against President Yoweri Museveni's government in 1988, ostensibly in a bid to replace it with an administration that would enforce the biblical Ten Commandments.
The group is infamous for its atrocities against civilians and abductions of children, whom it forces to fight in rebel ranks or to serve as concubines to its leaders, and has been condemned by human rights groups and UN aid agencies.