Ugandan rebels have killed 38 people since Christmas in a wave of attacks on southern Sudanese villages, a senior Sudanese official said on Thursday. Jemma Nunu Kumba, governor of south Sudan's Western Equatoria state, said thousands of civilians had fled the area fearing more raids by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters.
"They have caused unprecedented havoc, killing almost 40 people between December 24 and January 1," she said. "We are now a target area. This is more than hunger. This is revenge."
The LRA's elusive commander Joseph Kony and two of his top deputies are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for their role in one of Africa's longest-running wars.
Some two million civilians were displaced in northern Uganda and the conflict has destabilised neighbouring regions of volatile north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and oil-producing southern Sudan.
LRA fighters killed 20 people on Friday in a raid on a park ranger station in the Congolese town of Negero, local officials said, while United Nations officials say LRA fighters killed nearly 200 people during three days of raids in DRC in late December.
Forces led by Uganda and including Congolese and south Sudanese troops began bombing LRA bases in Congo's Garamba National Park in mid-December after Kony again failed to sign a final peace agreement with the Ugandan government.
Ugandan and Congolese officials have said the offensive succeeded in destroying most of the LRA's bases in Garamba. But the coalition forces have so far failed to find Kony.
Attacks by his fighters in Sudan's Western Equatoria have been particularly brutal. Dozens of people were hacked to death with axes and machetes, Kumba said, pregnant women had been disembowelled and a baby was smashed against a tree.
Soldiers rescued one man who was thrown into a fire by the rebels, she said, adding south Sudanese troops were doing all they could to stop the guerrillas entering from the DRC.
"But they are breaking through because the border is vast," Kumba said. --
Source:Reuters
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