LRA rebels kill at least 10 Ugandan civilians

KAMPALA, Uganda, Feb 09, 2004 (AP) — Rebels in northern Uganda hacked to death at least 10 people they found tending their fields, the army said Monday.

Soldiers were pursuing Lord’s Resistance Army rebels who attacked the village of Abako, about 310 kilometers (192 miles) north of Kampala, and killed the villagers with machetes on Saturday, said Lt. Chris Magezi, an army spokesman.

Most the residents had fled the village more than a year ago for the safety of the nearby Alanyi and Corner Abako camps for displaced people. But many return regularly to the village to tend to crops on their small plots, Magezi said.

The Rev. Sebath Ayele, a missionary with the Roman Catholic Comboni Fathers Mission, told The Associated Press he had heard about the killings from other villagers in the isolated area. He said that as many as 20 people may have been killed and an unspecified number abducted, but he could not provide any additional details.

The shadowy Lord’s Resistance Army, which has little contact with the outside world, could not be reached for comment.

The northern rebels have fought for 17 years to overthrow President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, but mostly attack civilians to steal food and abduct children for use as fighters or concubines.

Fighting between the army and rebels intensified after Feb. 2002 when Sudan agreed to allow Ugandan troops to attack LRA bases in southern Sudan.