Ugandan rebels continue to destabilize Sudan’s Western Equatoria
March 9, 2007 (YAMBIO) — The Ugandan rebels have looted a village in Western Equatoria state. They also abducted some people in order to carry the loot reported a press release issued by the head of the Western Equatoria Azande Community.
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has looted, on March 7, 2007, the village of Wowo in Nabanga Payam sending hundreds of people fleeing from the area. Some people were reported abducted by the LRA in order to carry the loot but were freed later on as the LRA moved into the dense forest of Congo and Sudan boarders,
The Eastern Equatoria is also suffering from the insecurity posed by LRA, Governor Ojetuk says the LRA must go back to their country or they will be evicted by force from Eastern Equatoria territory.
The Ugandan rebels LRA have committed untold atrocities and makes it difficult for my people to reconstruct and develop themselves after under going 21 years of destructive war, he remarks.
“I am appealing to you the citizen of this state to be ready when I blow the whistle for evicting LRA from our state”.
Meanwhile in Western Equatoria, the UN has placed Tambura County at Security Level four which mandates the evacuation of UN civilian staff and as such the UN civilian staff had been relocated to Juba. These follows reports on March 4th that hundreds of LRA were seen heading towards Tambura town and people feared a clash with the JIU might happen and there were reported gunfire on the outskirts of the town and hence the reports of possible LRA attack on Tambura itself prompted the UN to evacuee staff and place Tambura on security level 4.
According to the statement, Vincent Otti, RLA second in command had gone possibly to Central African Republic(CAR) or still around Tambura with his forces, where they loot; his boss Joseph Kony still seems to be holed up around Nabanga and Garamba forests perhaps waiting for the right signal when they too can head for the boarders of Central African Republic or to areas near Tambura or take other decisions such as waging war in Northern Uganda.
Thus while the RLA continue to ponder their next move and the politicians in Juba only pinning their hope in resumption of peace talks as way out, the brutal LRA terrorists continue to unleash terror on the Azande by wide spread terror of lootings, abduction and killings throughout the Western Equatoria lands.
The statement denounced the inaction of southern Sudan population in the state particularly the Azande community.
“What has become of Lt Gen. Salva Kiir promise to kick the LRA out or was he just making rhetoric to counter Bashir talk of flushing the LRA out of Sudan? Why is it that Dr Riek Machar continue to make empty announcements about peace talks resumption only to be counteracted by RLA statement every time and they seem to tell him to forget it for good?”
“If the GoSS cannot handle LRA militarily then the WES people are ready to do it themselves and they only need a leader and some armaments and then all hell will break lose on the LRA. WES Defence forces will be ready to re-emerge to engage the LRA and flush them out of our lands of Western Equatoria. We only need a blessing of GoSS for the operation.”
(ST)