Ugandan rebels kill at least 41 in south Sudan: church leader

KAMPALA, June 10 (AFP) — At least 41 civilians were killed by Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) who attacked their villages in south Sudan, an Anglican priest from the area told AFP.

“They attacked three villages, Lokiliri, Goke and Lomega, (southeast of the major southern town of Juba) and we have so far ascertained that 41 people were killed by shooting or by using machetes while seven were wounded,” the priest, Paul Yugsuk, told AFP by phone in Kampala.

Yugsuk warned that the real death toll could be higher.

“These were the dead that could be counted. There may be more as other villages we have not reached were also attacked,” he added.

The LRA took control of the villages, said Yugsuk, displacing their residents to Juba and other towns in the area.

Ugandan army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said he had no information about the latest attack since it happened in a part of Sudan where Ugandan troops are not present.

In 2002, Khartoum allowed Kampala to send troops into southern Sudan, where the LRA has rear bases. This campaign prompted the rebels to move back south to northern Uganda, where they frequently abduct children for forced conscription or sexual slavery.

The LRA has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni’s secular government since 1988, ostensibly to replace it with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.

But it is best known for its brutality against the people of northern Uganda, and since the 2002 incursions, the number of the displaced people has tripled to over 1.5 million people who have fled their homes and are living in squalid camps dotting the entire region.