Ugandan rebels kill two, abduct 30 in eastern CAR
By Richard Ruati
February 21, 2010 (RAFAI, CAR) – Ugandan rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army killed two people and abducted 30 in a raid on a remote city in the Central African Republic (CAR), a witness and local media said on Saturday.
Purported movement by LRA in the regions of Southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and CAR has resulted in the direst humanitarian crisis.
With the intervention of allied forces aided by local vigilantes known as the “Arrow Boys”, LRA operations have scaled down in southern Sudan.
The leadership of the rebel group, which has waged a two decades-long insurgency in Uganda before rebasing in Congo, is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
“Two people were killed with machetes and clubs and 14 people were severely wounded,” Desire Gassi, a local resident, told Reuters by telephone Saturday.
He said the rebels attacked around nightfall and ransacked a church before abducting about 30 people and heading back into the bush.
A radio broadcaster, Clement Loutemboli, said the rebels had used machetes and clubs instead of guns to avoid alerting an army base several kilometers (miles) away, and were using the hostages as porters.
Civilians in Neighboring Southern Sudan are already expressing fear of LRA surprise attack the during the elections given the closeness of Rafai to Source in southern Sudan
Although many LRA training camps have been broken up and some rebels disarmed by U.N.-backed Congolese soldiers, they continue to attack civilians in Congo, Sudan and CAR.
The increasing LRA attacks in CAR come as the Army chiefs of Congo, Uganda and Central African Republic met on Tuesday and Wednesday in Kinshasa to assess the operation against the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army.
The meeting is attended by chief of general staff of the Ugandan army Aronda Nyakirimana, his counterpart from Central African Republic Francois Modebu and Congolese army chief Didier Etumba.
The three countries are engaged in the actions to get rid of the LRA operating in the three neighboring countries, as well as in southern Sudan.
The LRA has waged one of the longest guerrilla wars in Africa since 1986, roaming between Uganda, southern Sudan, DR Congo and Central African Republic. Its guerrilla-style warfare has left tens of thousands dead and 2 million homeless over years.
DR Congo and Uganda launched a joint military operation against the LRA on Dec. 14, 2008, declaring they had wiped out 80 percent of the rebel group at the end of the crackdown in March.
Although the joint military action dismantled the LRA’s main base in DR Cong’s Garamba national park bordering both Uganda and southern Sudan, the notorious group is still able to launch attacks on villages where cases of killing, looting, rape and child abduction were reported.
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Ugandan rebels kill two, abduct 30 in eastern CAR
As long as European mercenaries and other Foriegn groups keep supproting the LRA, they will cause more terrorism in Cnentral Africa Republic, I believe this is another way to exploit central Africa republics resources and weakening its government and abusing its people, there is no reasons why NCP would help LRA to fight in central African republic.
LRA was a Ugandan rebel group, why would they go to fight in Central Africa republic? what is the purpose or the cause, who do thtey want to liberate there or what is their missionm there? does it make sense, is LRA that stupid like animals that htey do not know their missions or objectives? LRA has never had interest in central african republic, even the Arab of NCP has never had problems with central africa like they did with chad, so there is really no reasons to believe it is LRA attacking central africa republic and massacring civilians randomly. It is the evil forces which we in Africa blieve to be our friends, the charity, the church, the organizations run by Europeans are the ones behind the LRA, first LRA was fighting in Uganda they were supported by Arab to fight SPLM and UPDF but now it is a different story, the European mercenaries and evil groups have been the man force behind the recent upserge of LRA, they give LRA informations they gaather through NGOs and the churches, they serectly fly weapons to LRA and they trian them to kill civilians and cause chaos in central African, they did it in Uganda, the moved to Congo and South Sudan, now they want to move to exploit central Africa republic.
So i would really urge the different African governments to work together, we need to intensify our intelligence sharing and information sharing to crack down on this evil forces hiding between us and pretending to be our friends, the European mercenaries hiding under the cover of NGOs, Charity workers, forest conservationists and churches, we have to monitor them and impose more restrictions on their movements, otherwise our people will continue to die but we do not know if it is the LRA who is killing them or not.
For example we have to keep the close working relationship between the UPDF and SPLA because most of this evil groups are based around the great lakes regions,also our brothers in Kenya security have to open their eyes, most European mercenaries and groups enter through Kenya, also Rwanda who has recently suffered a bomb attack most like organised by this same evil groups. If Kenya, Uganda,Rwanda, South Sudan and Congo can work closely together, we will finish this criminals very soon.
They usually work as tourists guide agencies, forest conservationists, NGOP or church workers, but it is them forming the connections between LRA and other rebels in the region, this makes it difficult to detect them because we think they are regular workers but in reality they are not, they are the people who everyone is wondering as to who is helping the LRA and other rebel groups.
Africans should not think that terrorism or terrorist is only Arab or Islam alone, but we have terrorist from all backgrounds and religions, people who we think stand for liberty and freedom are also involved in a silent terrorism against Africa, we have to get tough and impose our sanctions on groups from Europea we believe are connected with terrorist activities in African countries.