Ugandan army foils rebel raid

KAMPALA, April 21, 2004 (Xinhua) — The Ugandan army has beaten off an attack by the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on Pabbo camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the country’s north, local newspaper the Monitor reported Wednesday.

It quoted a military spokesman, Paddy Ankunda, as saying that one rebel commander, Charles Abola, was killed in Monday’s fighting that lasted several hours, and five AK47 guns and one machine gun were recovered.

The rebel group crossed into northern Uganda from southern Sudan recently to distract the Uganda People’s Defense Forces ( UPDF), who had been pursuing the rebels in the neighboring country.

On the same day, the UPDF pounded the LRA positions at Ugandan- Sudanese border area, killing another five rebels, the newspaper said, adding an escort of one rebel commander surrendered with a gun.

The rebels have been fighting 18-year-old war to topple the Ugandan government dominated by southerners, and claiming to give power to northern Acholi tribe.

But the rebels have killed tens of thousands of civilians, abducted over 20,000 children and displaced more than 1.5 million people, most of whom are from Acholi tribe.

Since last month the UPDF have been pursuing the rebels in southern Sudan to flush them out after securing a green light from the Khartoum government.