Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) said on Tuesday it would push ahead with talks to end two decades of conflict with the government despite the expulsion of some of its fighters for plotting to break up the movement.
Western diplomats said a group of dissident LRA rebels was preparing to surrender to United Nations troops in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo — fuelling Ugandan media reports that the group is in disarray over a split among its military leadership.
In a statement, LRA spokesperson Godfrey Ayoo said several fighters were dismissed last month after being found guilty of working with unnamed ”external hostile forces” to destabilise the movement.
It was the latest blow to the LRA, which has waged a brutal war in northern Uganda for 20 years.
Earlier this month, LRA leader Joseph Kony accused his deputy Vincent Otti of being a government spy and detained him in a Congolese forest hideout.
However, there is still speculation in Uganda that Kony had Otti killed. The LRA has a history of executing commanders and fighters accused of spying.
Several fugitive LRA leaders, including Kony and Otti, are under intense pressure from war-crimes indictments brought by the International Criminal Court.
Despite the LRA’s internal problems, Ayoo said the LRA remained committed to negotiations to end the fighting that has killed tens of thousands and uprooted nearly two million more.
Talks between the LRA and Kampala government are expected to resume in South Sudan next month.
The LRA is notorious for its brutal methods of attacking civilians, slicing body parts off survivors and kidnapping children to serve as fighters and sex slaves. — Reuters