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| Africa: Horn |
| 86 LRA iced by SPLA |
| 2004-03-06 |
| Sudanese rebels killed 86 members of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in fighting that broke out after the guerrilla group committed its worst massacre in years, a Sudanese rebel spokesperson said on Friday. The Sudanese rebels said they had fought more than a week of skirmishes with the LRA in southern Sudan, where the Ugandan movement has long maintained rear bases used to attack villagers in their home country. Sudanese rebels, who have often clashed with the LRA over control of parts of southern Sudan, said the latest fighting had been triggered by LRA attacks on their positions south of Juba, the main town in south Sudan. "The fighting is still going on," said George Riek Machar, spokesperson for the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. "We have been fighting for the last eight days south of Juba against a force commanded by LRA second-in-command Vincent Otti," he said. Machar said the LRA were being resupplied from Torit, a southern Sudanese town controlled by Sudanese government forces, but stopped short of accusing Khartoum of supporting the rebels. Separately, a smaller Sudanese rebel group said they had launched an offensive to crush the LRA, saying the group would prevent peace taking hold in southern Sudan despite progress at talks between the Khartoum government and southern rebels. Theophilous Ochang Lotti, the chairman of the Equatorial Defence Force, also said his group had merged with the larger SPLA, saying progress at the peace talks had narrowed differences between the former rebel rivals. "We have launched operations to crush the LRA in southern Sudan," Lotti told a news conference in Nairobi, capital of neighbouring Kenya, which is hosting the peace talks. "So long as the LRA occupy southern Sudan, there will be no peace in Sudan even if we sign a peace agreement," Lotti said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |