WEDNESDAY, 7.00PM:
JOSEPH KONY and a group of his Lord’s Resistance Army forces have been surrounded by Ugandan troops at Polaro in the northern Gulu district of the country. Ugandan troops have reportedly killed more than killed 100 of Kony’s LRA rebels.
The New Vision newspaper reported that Ugandan troops have freed 140 civilians abducted from their villages by Kony’s men. The abducted villagers are press-ganged into Kony’s army.
About 90 rebel fighters surrendered to government forces over the same period. Another 150 LRA rebels, reportedly under the command of Kony’s number two, Otti Lagony, are trapped in Apala and Olilim sub-counties in the eastern Lira district.
The political agenda of the LRA is unclear, but when it began its insurgency it stated that it wanted to overthrow the government and put in its place an administration based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.
LRA rebels, including at least two other guerrilla commanders, entered Uganda on Friday and headed southwards to Atiak in the Gulu district, where they engaged the army in a gunbattle. At least 23 rebels were killed in the encounter.
Uganda has accused Sudan of supporting the LRA, and has issued a warning from Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni that Uganda will retaliate if the Sudanese government does not cut ties with the LRA rebels.