Rebels kill two in Uganda

2003-07-19 14:49

Kampala - At least two people were killed and two injured when suspected Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels attacked a displaced people's camp in northern Uganda's Gulu district, army spokesman Lieutenant Paddy Ankunda said on Saturday.

"They attacked the periphery of Lalogi camp at around 19:00 on Friday, killed two people and injured two others, before we deployed our forces that repulsed them," Ankunda said by telephone from Gulu, 360 kilometres north of the capital, Kampala.

But he said the rebels retreated after they had abducted five people from dwellings in the outskirts of the camp, which is home to about 10 000 people.

The army also said it had managed to rescue some 47 abductees, mainly children, from LRA captivity in two separate encounters.

"Thirty-four people were rescued on Friday from Awelo in Lira district, while 13 others were rescued at Wiyanono in Gulu," Ankunda said.

During the two incidents, the rebels tried to attack displaced people's camps and the army was deployed to pursue them, forcing them to abandon their captives, he added.

The LRA has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni's secular government since 1988 to replace it with a regime based on the biblical Ten Commandments.

But their campaign has been marked by brutality against the people of northern Uganda, whom they have killed and maimed, displacing over 800 000 others, who live in squalid camps dotting the entire northern Ugandan region.

The LRA relies on abductions to beef up its ranks. Abducted boys are forced to fight the government army, while the girls are made concubines or sex slaves for rebel commanders.

- AFX