Uganda closes border with Sudan after killings of 38 people
Oct 21, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Uganda ordered a temporary closure of its border with Sudan after unknown assailants killed 38 people this past week on roads leading to the main southern Sudanese town of Juba, the army spokesman said Saturday.
The measure has been taken for the safety of people who use the road to Juba, and Ugandan army units near the border are on high alert, army spokesman Maj. Felix Kulayigye said.
He said the border would be reopened when the security situation improves.
“We have stopped vehicles moving to Sudan. We are not allowing them to cross to Sudan for their own security,” Kulayigye said. “Our soldiers are on high alert. They are ready for any eventuality. They are at the border of Uganda and Southern Sudan.”
On Friday, the U.N. refugee agency said that it had suspended its operation helping Sudanese refugees return from Uganda, following last year’s peace deal that ended two decades of civil war in the southern Sudan.
The agency took the action after reports of at least 38 civilians killed in attacks in southern Sudan by unknown assailants, said Ron Redmond, spokesman for U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.
Kulayigye said that it was the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group that carried out the attacks, which he said occurred Wednesday.
Lord’s Resistance Army spokesman Godfrey Ayo denied the rebel group carried out the attack, saying they had checked with their fighters in southern Sudan who said they were not responsible.
Hundreds of passengers scheduled to travel to southern Sudan are stranded at the border. Six buses, several taxis and trucks are at the border waiting to be allowed to travel to Juba, Sudanese businessman Tolbert Tabani told The Associated Press on the phone from the border town of Nimule.
Tabani, whose truck is among those waiting to be allowed to go to Juba, said that the border closure would affect business in southern Sudan, which relies on trade with Uganda for most of its supplies.
“There has been good business atmosphere in Juba but now things have changed for the worse. I hope the situation improves,” Tabani said.
(AP)