United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has slammed an incursion by Ugandan rebels, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but warned Kampala against using force to dislodge them.
In a veiled reference to Uganda, he reminded “governments that any recourse to the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of the DRC contravenes the United Nations Charter.”
Last month, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he would deploy forces to the volatile eastern DRC unless Kinshasa and the UN dealt with the LRA insurgents that had fled there. Kampala has demanded that the LRA rebels be disarmed and returned to Uganda.
The recent spate of attacks on civilians in northern and eastern Uganda by the LRA has raised fears that the brutal 19-year-old conflict is “not yet over”, a top religious leader in the region said. “We have, in the past, been hoodwinked that rebel activities were on the wane, only to resurface with renewed vigour and brutality,” said Archbishop John Baptist Odama on Wednesday.
Odama urged Ugandan military commanders and government security officials to stop making “provocative statements”. “Whenever our officials make statements like ‘we have defeated these people’, the LRA respond by carrying out attacks, and the people are the ones suffering,” he said.
On Monday, a group of LRA rebels ambushed a pick-up vehicle in Kitgum, killing five people and injuring at least two others. They burnt between 30 and 40 thatched huts before they fled and moved further north towards the Sudanese border. Last week, attacks were reported in the eastern sub-region of Teso. Four people, including a local militia member, were killed. The attack came after more than a year of calm in the region.