Ugandan troops discover rebels’ arms cache in southern Sudan

KAMPALA, August 01, 2004 (Xinhua) — The Ugandan army has discovered one of the biggest arms caches of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army ( LRA) in southern Sudan, Uganda’s official weekly Sunday Vision reported.

Army spokesman based in northern Uganda Lt. Paddy Ankunda was quoted as saying that the soldiers on Friday discovered a LRA armory in areas of Dirinyang and Ngangara in southern Sudan.

Ankunda said the harvest included 75 AK-47 rifles, 11 rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), 16 RPG bombs, one man pack radio, one video camera and ammunitions, bringing to 111 the total of rifles recovered from the LRA rebels in three days.

He added that the arms had been concealed underground in plastic wrapping.

In a Wednesday attack on rebel bases in Dirinyang, the army said they have killed 120 LRA rebels and captured, among other weapons, 36 rifles from the rebels.

Rebel leader Joseph Kony, who was in the camp at the time of the Wednesday’s attack, escaped.

Meanwhile, army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said on Saturday that the heavy fighting is continuing in southern Sudan in pursuit of the rebel leader.

The LRA has been fighting an 18-year-old war with the Ugandan government, creating havoc in northern Uganda.