UGANDA’S Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels attacked another village in northern Uganda at the weekend, abducting at least 10 farmers before clubbing them to death, military and local sources said today. "These rebels are becoming crazy. They attacked Ojuru village in Abako sub-county yesterday, found people who had returned to the villages to tend to their gardens and abducted all of them, but later decided to club them to death," army spokesman Lieutenant Chris Magezi said by telephone from Lira town in northern Uganda.
| "They weren't too tightly wrapped before, either!" |
Magezi said about 10 people were clubbed to death, but local leaders put the death toll at 15, with about four injured and admitted to Lira Hospital. Church sources said the death toll could be between 10 and 18. Religious leaders from the Lango sub-region, composed of districts of Lira and Apac, which has become the epicentre of the rebellion, appealed to the government to offer affected people more protection, warning that the rebellion could soon trigger international intervention. "Ugandan authorities have the duty to protect the entire civil population living in northern Ugandan districts, where the LRA rebels wreak death and destruction," Anglican Bishop John Odurkami of Lango Religious Leaders Forum (LRLF) said in a note sent to the government. "If the government is not capable of guaranteeing safety to the people, with its armed forces, it has the moral obligation to request intervention of an international peacekeeping force, led by the United Nations," Odurkami added.
| That always works well... |
The army said by housing refugees in camps, it is able to protect them against being abducted and forced into LRA ranks. |