Sudan protest to Uganda over allegations by its army

KAMPALA, Aug 28 (AFP) — Sudan formally protested to Uganda on Thursday over Ugandan army allegations that Khartoum had resumed official support for Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels operating in the north of the country, a minister said.

“The Sudanese Ambassador met me today (Thursday) to pass on a formal protest from his government over allegations made by the Ugandan army spokesman that the Sudan government had resumed military support to LRA leader Joseph Kony,” Regional Cooperation Minister Nsimye Sebutulo told AFP by telephone.

An LRA defector alleged earlier this week that the Sudanese government was still giving the rebels arms and food and allowing several hundreds to cross over into southern Sudan.

Army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza later repeated the allegations, saying that the defector had been brought to the capital Kampala.

Sebutulo told AFP that Kampala had in June made a report to Khartoum listing instances when support was given to LRA by Sudanese soldiers, but no formal reply had been received from Sudan over the issue, except some verbal denials.

Uganda and Sudan signed a protocol last year under which the Sudanese government allowed the Ugandan army to enter southern Sudan in search and destroy operations against the LRA rebels, who have been fighting government since 1988 from rear bases on Sudanese soil and was renewed for periods up to last May 31.

The LRA has been fighting with a declared aim of replacing President Yoweri Museveni’s secular government with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.