LRA rebels kill one and abduct five in W. Equatoria

Richard Ruati

May 12, 2011 (KAMPALA) – Five people, including an eleven-year old girl were abducted and one killed when the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) raided a funeral procession in Bangu between Nagero and Tambura counties of Western Equatoria state on Tuesday.

“LRA rebels brutal attack happened when people were at a funeral service. A group of about ten too fifteen LRA soldiers came in the evening rounded them up and at 7.00pm some villagers managed to escape and reported the LRA to the police,” said the commissioner.

He stated that after he received the report he ordered the police and the community guards to intervene, with him leading the team. They followed the fleeing LRA troops and were ambushed, resulting in one of the commissioner’s team being shot.

The LRA is a militia which has terrorised the region since the late eighties. They were formed in Uganda and are led by the International Criminal Court indited Joseph Kony, who describes himself as a ‘spokesperson’ for God. They commit atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Sudan. There have been allegations that they LRA are operating a mercenaries for the northern Sudanese government, Khartoum vehemently denies this.

He stressed that the county is working hard to straighten capacity of the home guards so that when such attacks happen they can respond directly.

The home guards are local vigilantes who use firearms to provide protections to the local communities from the atrocities of the LRA.

The civil vigilante’s often use traditional weapons such as bow and arrows.
Babiro said the local authorities and the council of traditional leaders under the chairmanship of the new paramount chief, Tambura Mboribamu Baabe Reinzi, has pledged contributions to the home guards to help boost their operations.

Earlier this year the chiefs of Yambio county contributed funds to the home guards to help them protest the local communities as they cultivate their land.

The state government says the presence of vigilante groups is “welcome”. Though elements from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) have been cautious of the Arrow boys, as they are otherwise known fearing that the guns or arrows might be turned against them one day.

In many LRA attacks the army tries to send soldiers out on patrol with as many vigilante groups as possible, but with few SPLA soldiers deployed in the region, lack of logistical support and welfare to an army which is emerging a long civil war this is difficult.

Until five years ago, the infamous LRA rebels enjoyed safe passage after looting, abducting and burning the streets of the villages. However, with the presence of Arrow boys, the LRA had had difficulty making their way with villages at a large scale.

In Uganda LRA rebels are no longer a threat, most rural villages are peaceful and there is sense of peace in northern Uganda, a region which bore the brunt of LRA brutal campaign to topple the regime of Uganda’s Museveni

(ST)