- Title: UGANDA: AID WORKERS STRUGGLE TO HELP REFUGEES FROM REBEL MASSACRE
- Date: 26th February 2004
- Summary: (EU) OGUR CAMP, NORTHERN UGANDA (FEBRUARY 26, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE / PAN OF HUNDREDS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE WAITING FOR FOOD AID 0.05 2. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CARRYING BAGS OF MAIZE FLOUR 0.15 3. VARIOUS OF GROUP OF PEOPLE SHARING FOOD RATION OF BEANS 0.27 4. VARIOUS OF CHILDREN EATING FLOUR 0.38 5. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Luo) OLANYA
- Embargoed: 12th March 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: OGUR, NORTHERN UGANDA
- Country: Uganda
- Reuters ID: LVADYMT36E78UK05RWQKSR960HZY
- Story Text: Ugandan aid workers struggle to feed thousands of
people fleeing bloodiest rebel massacre in years.
Relief workers on Thursday (February 26, 2004) distributed
aid to thousands of Ugandan families fleeing a recent
massacre carried out by rebels led by a self-proclaimed
mystic.
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels sparked the exodus
from the Barlonyo camp last week, when they overran militia
guards and killed more than 200 people, burning many of
them to death as they cowered in grass-thatched huts.
The massacre has sparked public anger that the
government could not prevent it, but there are few signs of
a new strategy to defeat the 17-year insurgency.
Aid officials said close to 4,500 people were currently
being assisted, but they expected more to trickle in to a
new camp set up in open fields in the Ogur district,
outside the town of Lira. Aid packages destined for other
vulnerable places in the volatile northern Lira district
have been redirected to the Ogur area.
Mothers with tiny babies strapped to their backs waited
patiently in line to receive food packages of milk, beans
and powdered rations from the World Food Programme (WFP),
the emergency food aid arm of the United Nations.
"I am very happy and I am enjoying the food that I am
eating, because today I will get enough energy," said one
of the beneficiaries, Olanya Yuventino.
"These victims, all their foodstuff was burnt, their
households were burnt and when we had assessment two days
ago here, we saw it's horrible, so it is good that we are
coming here to assist them, with this emergency response,"
said a World Food Programme worker, Gilbert Buzu.
Red Cross volunteers also distributed blankets, pots
and pans to the crowds waiting for assistance.
LRA attacks on civilians have forced hundreds of
thousands of people to flee their villages in northern
Uganda for shelter in protected camps, some of which have
been subjected to periodic LRA raids.
Led by self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony, the LRA has
abducted thousands of children for use as fighters and sex
slaves during its 17-year revolt, and has in the past been
feared for cutting off the lips and noses of villagers. The
movement has never issued a clear public statement of its
demands, but says it is fighting for the rights of the
northern Acholi people, who have long felt neglected.
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