- Title: UGANDA: FILE OF WOUNDED FROM FEBRUARY 6 REBEL ATTACK ON A CAMP
- Date: 22nd February 2004
- Summary: (EU) LIRA, UGANDA (FILE - FEBRUARY 6, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SLV/CU CIVILIANS WOUNDED IN ATTACK BY REBELS IN A CAMP 30KMS AWAY (2 SHOTS) 0.07 2. SV NURSE TENDING TO WOUNDED BABY 0.14 3. SLV/SV WOUNDED CHILD ON HOSPITAL FLOOR (2 SHOTS) 0.22 4. SV WOMAN HOLDING WOUNDED CHILD'S HAND 0.25 5. PAN WOUNDED CHILD IN HOSPITAL BED 0.37
- Embargoed: 8th March 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LIRA,UGANDA
- Country: Uganda
- Reuters ID: LVABXUE8CF7FVVM8WD42Z6Z81W27
- Story Text: File of wounded from February 6 rebel attack on a
camp. There was another attack on Saturday night (February
21) in which 173 people were killed.
Hundreds of people have been killed in rebel
attacks on displaced camps in Uganda in the last two week.
Reuters showed pictures on February 6 of survivors of a
bloody raid by the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on
a camp for people fleeing fighting in the north.
And on Saturday night (February 22) 173 more refugees
were killed in a different camp in the north.
Earlier a Ugandan army spokesman had said the death
toll was at least 84 from the attack on the Ogur camp and
that the LRA rebels had set fire to grass-thatched huts in
which people were hiding.
No pictures relating to the latest attack are available
yet but a phone conversation with Father Sebat Ayala,
stationed in nearby Lira, revealed that 52 bodies had been
buried in a mass grave whilst 121 were still lying on the
ground.
He said that according to the local militia, the rebels
started the attack from a distance using artillery fire.
When they realised they were being overpowered by the
rebels the militia told the villagers to flee into the
nearby bushes. But they fled into their grass-thatched huts
instead. He said the rebels then set them alight.
The Eritrean-born priest said the 36 militia tasked
with guarding the camp of 4,800 inhabitants were no match
for the 100 or so heavily armed rebels.
Most camp dwellers managed to escape into the nearby
bush and returned to the camp on Sunday morning, the priest
said.
In Uganda, priests have a solid track record of
providing accurate accounts of attacks by the LRA.
LRA attacks on civilians have forced hundreds of
thousands of people to flee their villages in northern
Uganda for shelter in protected camps, which are the
subject of periodic LRA raids.
In their bloodiest recent attack, rebels shot or hacked
to death more than 50 people at a refugee camp in Abia
district.
On Thursday, the army said that after hunting the
insurgents for several days in another northern district of
Pader, government soldiers killed 37 rebels and rescued 22
people abducted by the cult-like group.
The LRA is based in lawless areas of southern Sudan and
led by self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony. It has defied
repeated attempts by the Ugandan army to crush its
17-year-old revolt.
The rebels have abducted thousands of children for use
as fighters or sex slaves. The LRA says it is fighting to
improve the lot of Uganda's northern Acholi people but has
not made a clear public statement detailing its demands.
The Hague-based International Criminal Court has said
it could open its first case against the rebels within
months. Uganda has asked the court to investigate
allegations of human rights abuses by the LRA.
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