NAIROBI (AlertNet) Â? Indiscriminate attacks on civilians by
Ugandan rebels have uprooted more than 125,000 people in the
last three weeks on the borders of three central African
countries, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) says.
Attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on villages and
towns in southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and
Central African Republic have displaced thousands and forced aid
agencies to evacuate their staff to safety in some places.
Â?This is, by all means, the worst crisis unfolding in Congo,
where more than 125,000 people have been displaced by LRA
attacks in the last three weeks,Â? David Nthengwe, a UNHCR
spokesman, told AlertNet by telephone from Goma, the capital of
North Kivu province in northeastern Congo.
The rebels, who have abducted tens of thousands of children to
serve as child soldiers or sex slaves and force them to turn on
their own communities, have been accused of carrying out
massacres, rape and looting.
Â?In July alone the LRA carried out 55 attacks in Congo and these
include rape, torching houses, abductions and looting,Â? said
Nthengwe.
Rebel attacks have spread from Bas-Uele to Haut-Uele districts
of Congo Orientale province in the northeast of the country.
In southern SudanÂ?s province of Western Equatoria, the rebels
raided Ezo, a town close to the border with Central African
Republic. They have also been accused of abducting 10 girls from
a local church, UNHCR said.
As a result of the intensifying LRA attacks, the U.N. suspended
all humanitarian activities in southern Sudan and evacuated 29
humanitarian workers, including seven UNHCR staff.
The U.N. estimates about 28,000 displaced people and refugees in
Ezo and Yambio were left without protection or assistance.
The rebels also attacked Bereamburu village, some 35 km from
Yambio, the regional capital, burning the local church and a
health centre and looting medical supplies, according to UNHCR.
Since the start of this year some 360,000 Congolese have been
uprooted in successive LRA attacks in Congo's Orientale
province, while some 20,000 others have fled to Sudan and
Central African Republic, according to UNHCR estimates.
The rebels, which have bases in all three countries, according
to UNHCR, have waged a bloody rebellion against the Ugandan
government since 1986.
The insurgency, which in 2005 spread to neighbouring countries,
ravaged northern Uganda, killing tens of thousands of people and
uprooting nearly 2 million. The conflict has threatened to
destabilise the volatile central African region with the rebels
seeking shelter in neighbouring countries and violence spilling
across borders.
LRA leader, Joseph Kony, a 47-year-old former altar boy, is now
a wanted war crimes suspect, accused by the International
Criminal Count of 33 counts of war crimes and crimes against
humanity.
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