Ugandan troops killed 28 fighters of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and lost four of their number during clashes in the north of the country on Monday evening, a military officer said on Tuesday.
The fighting occurred Agago county of Gulu district, according to Captain Fred Lugadya, an intelligence officer in the army’s fourth division, based in Gulu town.
”Seven UPDF (Uganda People’s Defence Forces) soldiers were seriously injured in the clash and we managed to capture some seven light machine guns from them,” Lugadya said by telephone from Gulu.
The LRA has engaged in violent activities since 1988 ostensibly fighting to overthrow President Yoweri Museveni’s secular government and replace it with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.
The group has however earned notoriety for its brutality against civilians.
After a lull of almost two years, the LRA in May began
intensifying a violent campaign in northern Uganda that largely targets civilians.
The escalation of violence followed an agreement in March between Uganda and Sudan, which authorises Ugandan troops to enter government-controlled areas of southern Sudan to fight the LRA, which is said to have rear bases there.
Kampala has long accused Khartoum of supporting the LRA, although the Sudanese authorities insist they have halted their backing for the rebels since the neighbours restored diplomatic relations earlier this year.
Last week, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni warned that his government would sever diplomatic ties with Sudan if it were proved that elements of the government had resumed support for the LRA.
He said that Kampala had received ”indications” that some Sudanese officials backed the LRA. Sudan’s ambassador to Uganda Surajjudin Mohammed denied the
allegations, insisting that Sudanese as well as Ugandan government troops had come under attack by the rebel group in recent months. – Sapa-AFP