LRA kill five people in South Sudan’s Raja County
By Manyang Mayom
October 22, 2009 (WAU) – The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) official spokesman Major General Kuol Deim Kuol, said five people were killed during an attack by Ugandan rebels on a village in Western Bahr-El-Ghazal State.
Kor-Al-Madina is a small village at 24 miles away from Raja County of Wau, the capital of Western Bahr-El-Ghazal state.
The LRA rebels runaway with three rifles belonging to the killed three policemen. They also abducted unspecific number of displaced people, Deim said. He pointed out that LRA is moving toward southeast of Raja county with abducted people.
This LRA attack had overwhelm civilian in this camps of Raja county, so when SPLA heard gunfire exchange between police and rebel, then our battalion of 333 rush to rescue the situation.
“The LRA is now heading with abducted people to southeast of Kor-Al-Madina toward the Sudan and the Central Republic of Congo border.”
As it has become difficult for Joseph Kony rebels to operate in southern Sudan, since last September the SPLA s military intelligence found fresh footprints of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) from Central African Republic heading toward Raja County of Western Bahr-El-Ghazal state. At the time the SPLA spokesperson said the Ugandan rebels are heading to Darfur.
“In September, we said that LRA is moving toward Darfur and might have links with Khartoum; this attack in Raja County has confirmed today that LRA is seriously moving to Darfur with backup from Sudan Arm Forces (SAF),” he said.
Raja commissioner Mr. Luwis Ramadan has also confirmed the report saying that three policemen and two civilian have been killed in the hottest attack by the LRA in Western Bahr-El-Ghazal State territory.
The Commissioner further added that on Wednesday attack the LRA has kidnapped about twenty one people and LRA rebel but he failed to determine the direction of the group saying they headed to unknown direction with the abducted people.
The Sudanese government denied SPLA claims that the leader of Uganda Lord Resistance Army (LRA) Joseph Kony relocated to the western region of Darfur.
Salah Gosh, the adviser to the Sudanese president and former director of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) said that the SPLA claim is untrue.
He said that the SPLA is resorting to “fabrications” and “political maneuvers” to “distort the image of the Sudanese army”.
(ST)