| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Horn |
| Ugandan Rebel Forces Recruit, Murder in South Sudan |
| 2010-08-24 |
| [Gulf Times] When the dreadlocked gunnies burst out of the jungle at night firing AK-47 assault rifles, the men of the scenic village took up bows and arrows to defend their families. But the brave defence was futile. The rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) simply shot the men and dragged off others into the forest to join their force. "Two of us were killed, and three more maimed," said Vanetta Tamenda, who fled as the rebels began their work, torching his small farming scenic village of Basukangbi, on south Sudan's remote border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The scenic village's simple defence force—calling themselves the Arrow Boys—were swiftly overrun. "They are too strong," Tamenda said, pulling up a ripped shirt to show bullet wounds in his shoulder and back. "We need guns to defend ourselves." Tens of thousands of people have been killed in two decades of fighting since LRA chief Joseph Kony took up arms—initially against the Ugandan government. Driven out of Uganda, the guerillas have carved out a vast region of control in the dense forests of northeastern DR Congo, south Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR). The jungle allows easy movement across porous borders for the rebels, who abandoned faltering peace talks in 2008. Their acts of startling brutality have forced more than 25,000 people to flee their homes in south Sudan since January, according to the UN. "The attacks this year by the LRA seem to be on the increase," said Sapana Abuyi, deputy governor of Western Equatoria, the state in south Sudan hardest hit by the rebels. "Not a week goes by without us receiving a message they have attacked a scenic village." They call the rebels here the "tong-tong" - or "chop-chop" - named after the machete attacks on their victims when they wish to save a bullet. Its top leaders, wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, are accused of massacres, mutilation, forcibly enlisting boys as child soldiers, and taking girls as sex slaves. Several hundred of those who most recently fled have gathered in the small settlement of Nzara, searching for security, shelter, food and medication. "People left so quickly they could take little," said Daniel James Banjen, chief of the Sangwa area, which was attacked in early August. "Some of us are staying with families, others under plastic sheeting, and all of us are living off the food that we are given." The people here say an upsurge in attacks is linked to the ripe harvests currently in the fields. "They leave us alone while we cultivate," said Terezina Mathew as a child clutched her skirt. "But when the crops are good they come, forcing us away so they can take all our food." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 ALso from TOPIX > US BECOMING MORE INTERESTED IN THE MAGHREB [Govts-States + Militant threat]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-08-24 03:07 |
| #1 VERSUS TOPIX > {AllAfrica] SOMALIA: HIZBUL ISLAM THREATENS TO TAKE OVER DOLOW TOWN, to whihc the TFG is countering by threatening to send in Army troops to fight JIzbul Islam + take over formal governance of the whole of the Southern region [martial law]??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-08-24 03:05 |