By Dennis Otim

20^th Dec 2010

The United Nations has warned of possible attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army over the festive season.

The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) voiced the concern on 14^th December 2010.  It warned of “…the possibility of renewed attacks on civilians by the brutal Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) over the upcoming holiday season”.

The LRA threat has already caused the UN’s MONUSCO to deploy troops as a preventive measure in Orientale Province ahead of the end-of-year holiday season which has in the past seen increased attacks by the LRA.

On Christmas day in 2008 for example, the LRA was linked to the massacre of nearly 500 people.  In a devastating wave of synchronized attacks over a period of 24 hours on Christmas Day 2008, in two clusters of locations in the DRC some 400 kilometres apart, two groups of between 100 and 150 LRA fighters killed at least 477 civilians and abducted hundreds of others.

Since late 2007, the LRA is estimated to have killed more than 1,800 people, abducted 2,400, and displaced some 230,000 others in dozens of attacks on towns and villages in Orientale province.

Some of the LRA’s alleged atrocities included mutilations, torture and multiple rapes.  Women and girls were said to have been raped before being killed and many who were abducted were forced to marry LRA commanders and members and subjected to sexual slavery or both.

The UN said it was therefore working with aid groups to facilitate delivery of humanitarian assistance in north-eastern DRC but added that a broader approach is needed to deal with the threat posed by the LRA in the country and the region at large.

It also welcomed the call by the African Union for a joint mechanism in the region to help fight against the LRA.  At the time it announced the troop deployments, MONUSCO noted that minor LRA attacks had already been reported from Nambia and Duru districts.

The LRA was formed in the late 1980s in Uganda and for over 15 years, its attacks were mainly directed against Ugandan civilians and security forces until they were dislodged from Uganda.

They then exported their rampage to Uganda’s neighbours.  END. Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.