Ugandan army says kills 55 rebels near Sudan border

KAMPALA, March 21 (Reuters) – The Ugandan army said on Sunday it had killed 55 Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in several hours of intense battle with a group of fighters who were planning to attack civilian near the border with Sudan.

“One hundred or so rebels crossed over from southern Sudan on Friday but later came into contact with our forces on Saturday,” said army spokesman Shaban Bantariza. “We subjected them to a sustained assault and killed 55 of them.”

The army said the rebels were desperate for food and were targeting several villages.

Bantariza said the rebels were being led by LRA vice-chief Vincent Otti, who survived the attack in the remote Ugandan area of Bibia, 50 miles from the northern town of Gulu.

Uganda said on Saturday it had killed 18 rebels as it intensified its attacks on the LRA, pursuing them inside southern Sudan where rebel leader Joseph Kony and his top commanders are believed to be based.

It said it planned to use aircraft inside Sudan’s airspace to flush out the rebels for the first time since signing an agreement with Khartoum earlier this month allowing it to do so.

The Ugandan army repeatedly says it is winning the war against the LRA, but many Ugandans are not convinced because the rebels continue to launch surprise attacks on lightly defended civilian targets.

In the latest attack last month, the rebels shot, hacked and burnt to death more than 300 civilians in northern Uganda in one of their worst mass killings in a 17-year-old insurgency.

The LRA, led by altar boy-turned-mystic Kony, are notorious for abducting children for use as sex slaves and child soldiers and maiming or massacring civilians. The conflict has forced 1.4 million people to flee their homes in northern Uganda.