Uganda: 19 rebels dead

2005-06-14 12:39

Kampala - The Ugandan army said on Tuesday it had killed at least 19 rebels from the notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the past two days in various parts of the war-ravaged north of the country.

The army spokesperson for the region, Lieutenant Kiconco Tabaro, said several of the fighters drowned while attempting to escape from military patrols by jumping into a river in Gulu district, the epicentre of the fighting.

"We killed 10 rebels on Sunday at Laminoto farm near the river Ayago," he said telephonically from Gulu town, about 50km northeast of the scene of the battle.

As the army pursued fleeing rebels, Kiconco said several jumped into the river to escape and the bodies of at least six drowned LRA fighters had been recovered.

The group of rebels involved in the incident were suspected of launching an attack last month on a camp for displaced people in which 16 people were killed.

Kiconco said another two rebels were killed on Monday while attempting an attack in northern Uganda's Pader district and another was killed the same day as a group of LRA fighters tried to enter neighbouring Kitgum district.

The rebels have been fighting the government in Kampala since 1988 ostensibly to establish a regime based on the biblical Ten Commandments.

The group is however known for brutality against the civilian population in the region in the war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced over 1.6 million people and seen thousands of children abducted to serve as rebel fighters or sex slaves.

Despite halting efforts to restart a moribund peace process, both the LRA and government have stepped up military operations in recent months in what the United Nations says is one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

- AFP