Church official: Thousands of refugees starving in southern Sudan

KAMPALA, July 26, 2004 (dpa) — Thousands of civilians, displaced by Ugandan rebels in raids launched into southern Sudan during the past month, are dying of starvation, a church official working in the region said Monday.

Reverend Paul Yugusuk, a cleric who heads a deaconry in the area, reported that guerillas of Ugandan rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) forced more than 9,000 people from villages around the southern Sudanese town of Torit.

He said that the people are living in “dire conditions” in three camps situated west of Torit. The refugees are protected from further LRA attacks by Sudan’s main rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), but they have no access to food or medicine, he added.

Saying that 41 villagers were killed in the LRA attack, Yugusuk compared the situation that of Darfur in the country’s West.