Ugandan rebels flees Congo for Sudan- UN

Oct 7, 2005 (KINSHASA) — A group of Ugandan rebels who fled to Congo last month have left the country for Sudan, a U.N. spokesman said Friday.

The U.N. says about 380 rebels from the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, fled to northeast Congo several weeks ago, and the Ugandan army has threatened to send troops across the border to hunt them down.

U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Lt. Col. Thierry Provendier said a U.N. team traveled Friday to the northeastern town of Aba and “confirmed the LRA fled to Sudan.” He gave no other details.

The Lord’s Resistance Army is made up of the remnants of a northern rebellion that began after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, took power in 1986. Sudan, which had backed the rebels, is now reconciled with Uganda and the rebels are under increased military pressure.

The LRA is infamous for abducting more than 30,000 children, forcing them to become fighters, porters or concubines. The group has killed thousands of civilians and forced more than a million to flee their homes, but appears to have no clear political agenda and little contact with the outside world.

Officials from Congo, Uganda and the U.N. have met several times in recent weeks in a bid to resolve the issue.

Uganda says the rebels numbered about 50, while Congolese officials have put the number at 400. It has not been possible to get explanations for the discrepancy.

(AP/ST)