Ugandan rebels kill two in Sudan aid convoy – army

KAMPALA, June 21 (Reuters) – Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels killed two civilians in an ambush on a convoy carrying aid to southern Sudan, a Ugandan army spokesman said on Monday.

LRA fighters opened fire on the trucks owned by the Rapid Response NGO on Saturday near Padibe trading centre, about 15 km (9.3 miles) north of Uganda’s Kitgum town.

“The convoy was transporting humanitarian supplies to southern Sudan when it was attacked,” army spokesman Chris Magezi told Reuters by telephone from the north.

Magezi said the convoy was moving through the remote northern area without the military’s knowledge or protection.

“We have agreed to liaise more closely in the future. We need to work hand in hand to make sure they are safe,” he said.

Magezi said it was not clear whether the two men killed in the ambush were NGO staff, or passengers on the trucks. Rapid Response officials were not immediately available for comment.

Ugandan military spokesmen often say the LRA, which has waged a civil war against the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for 18 years, is on its last legs and desperate for food and medicines.

Joseph Kony, the self-proclaimed mystic who leads the cult-like rebel group, is believed to live in lawless southern Sudan, directing raids back into neighbouring northern Uganda.

Southern Sudan is beginning to recover from its own civil war, and humanitarian agencies have stepped up the distribution of aid to communities ravaged during two decades of fighting and to refugees returning home.

The LRA rebels are notorious for their brutality to civilians, including slicing off their victims’ lips and ears as well as abducting tens of thousands of children to serve as fighters, porters and sex slaves.

Most Ugandans say the group has no clear aims or political objectives beyond overthrowing Museveni’s government.