- Title: UGANDA: REFUGEES AT LIRA CAMP FLEE REBEL ATTACK.
- Date: 10th August 2002
- Summary: (W5) LIRA REFUGEE CAMP, UGANDA (AUGUST 7-8, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: VARIOUS SCENES OF REFUGEES AT CAMP (2 SHOTS) 0.18 2. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED REFUGEE SAYING: "They came at around 6:30 whereby they gathered all the barracks plus the IRS's stuff then they started shooting guns, whereby majority of refugees were killed."
- Embargoed: 25th August 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LIRA REFUGEE CAMP AND UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS, UGANDA
- Country: Uganda
- Reuters ID: LVA3PY60DG2EEUDA6MM5TWKSQYHL
- Story Text: Thousands have fled after hundreds of Lord's Resistance
Army rebels attacked a Ugandan refugee camp.
Hundreds of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels
overpowered troops guarding the U.N. camp in northern Uganda
on Monday (August 5), killing refugees and and forcing 24,000
to flee in one of their bloodiest attacks in months.
The LRA, led by self-styled prophet Joseph Kony, has said
it wants to overthrow the government of President Yoweri
Museveni and rule according to the biblical Ten Commandments.
Refugees preparing to leave the camp said the rebels
overran the settlement.
"They came at around 6:30 whereby they gathered all the
barracks plus the IRS's stuff then they started shooting guns,
whereby majority of refugees were killed," said one refugee.
"I myself was attacked. I missed narrowly," said another
refugee who lives opposite the barracks.
Saihou Saidy, the UNHCR representative in Uganda, said the
exact number of people killed in the clashes remains unknown
because they have not been able to access the site.
"Many people were killed, many people were wounded and
we're worried about the sick, we're worried about the young,
we're worried about the elderly and we have not been able to
go into the area to make an on-the-spot assessment," Saidy
said.
The rebels, reviled for cutting off noses or padlocking
the lips of villagers accused of collaborating with the army,
set a T-54 army tank ablaze before looting the camp and
torching vehicles and buildings, the army said.
Thousands of refugees are now in Lira where they have been
staying two days before moving to another camp.
The raid on the Acholi-Pii camp, 360 km (224 miles) north
of Kampala, was the second LRA attack on a U.N. refugee camp
in a month.
Established in 1993, the camp mainly housed refugees who
fled civil war in neighbouring Sudan.
LRA attacks have increased in recent weeks after rebels
slipped back from Sudan and stepped up activity in the north
of the east African country in response to the army offensive.
The Ugandan army launched operation 'Iron Fist' in March
to deal a final blow to the insurgency, aiming to destroy the
rebels' rear bases in Sudan after the Sudanese government
granted them permission to operate in its territory.
"And remember these rebels have been at it for 16 years
now, so they are not exactly bad fighters. So if they find a
very small group of armed forces and they are much bigger than
they are, they will definitely be able to disorganise them,
which is what they did at Acholi-Pii," said army spokesman
Major Shaban Bantariza.
In July, LRA rebels hacked at least 42 people to death
with machetes and clubs in a pre-dawn raid on the northern
village of Okol village, the army said.
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