Ugandan rebels fighting the government have killed two soldiers of the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) pursuing them in southern Sudan.

Capt. Anech Mbangizi, military spokesman in charge of northwestern Uganda bordering southern Sudan, told Xinhua by telephone on Monday that the rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) ambushed the convoy of the army's 79th battalion commanding officer Lt. Col. John Byoma on the Yei-Maridi road in southern Sudan.

Mbangizi said that during the fire exchange, two government soldiers were killed and three others were wounded.

He said that Lt. Col. Byoma was shot in the leg and is now being treated at Gulu Hospital in northern Uganda. The military vehicle in which he was traveling in was burnt.

During the incident, two LRA rebels were also shot dead.

He said that the ambush occurred on Friday evening as the UPDF soldiers were moving to Maridi town at the border of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where troops from the 79th battalion have been deployed jointly with the Sudan People's Liberation Army to form a block force against the rebels who had crossed to the DRC recently.

Mbangizi said that the army suspects that the rebels who laid the ambush are part of the group that fled the DRC after pressure mounted on them by the DRC and United Nations troops.

This has been the first attack on the Ugandan troops that were recently deployed in southern Sudan at Yei-Juba road after reports that the LRA rebel commander Vincent Otti crossed to the DRC with a big number of rebels.

Since 2002, the Ugandan troops under a protocol signed by Uganda and Sudan, have been engaged in operations against the LRA rebels who use their bases in southern Sudan to attack Uganda.

For the last 19 years, LRA rebels have been fighting the government killing tens of thousands of people and displacing over1.4 million people.

Source: Xinhua