Ugandan soldiers say they have killed 30 rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in fighting in the north. An army spokesman said some of those killed were suspected of involvement in last weekend's massacre of displaced people at a camp. It is believed 200 civilians died but the government puts the figure at 80. The divisional commander, Colonel George Etyang, said several children abducted by the LRA had been killed accidentally in the latest clashes.
| The abducted ones usually ended up as Kony's new wives, so Etyang might have spared them from a worse fate. |
Ugandan troops have been stepping up their offensive against the rebels in the wake of the massacre. "We killed 30 of these thugs on Thursday in neighbouring Pader district," army spokesman Lieutenant Chris Magezi told the French news agency, AFP. He said 15 of the dead were suspected to have been among the group that attacked the Barlonya camp in Lira province. There has been intense anger in Lira at the killings and the government's perceived inability to defeat the rebels. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said he is determined to wipe out the rebellion - a promise he has repeatedly made. He has also long complained that by placing restrictions on his military spending, international donors are hampering his campaign to defeat the insurgents. But a Western donors' delegation in Uganda said strict limits on such spending would be maintained. |