Suspected rebels of Uganda's Lord' s Resistance Army (LRA) have massacred 35 civilians in coordinated attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and southern Sudan during Christmas, local media reported on Saturday.
Quoting military sources, Saturday Monitor reported that on Thursday morning, the Christmas Day, the marauding rebels raided Bitima, along the Sudan-DR Congo border, killing at least 13 civilians.
The rebels were also reported to have killed another 12 people on Thursday evening in Faraje, a small town about 150 km east of Dungu, where forces from DR Congo, southern Sudan and Uganda set up their base for the ongoing military offensive against the LRA.
The Ugandan People's Defense Force (UPDF) spokesman for the joint offensive now being conducted in the vast eastern part of the DR Congo, Capt. Chris Magezi, said apart from the killings in Faraje and Bitima, suspected rebels also ambushed a civilian pick up truck between Lasolo-Mambe road in southern Sudan, killing all the three occupants.
"Our forces who are pursuing the rebels found another five bodies of civilians, south west of Sekure, along the DR Congo-Sudan border," Magezi said by satellite telephone from DR Congo.
According to him, two more civilians were killed at Doruma, close to the Central African Republic, bringing the total number of people killed by the rebels on Christmas Day to 35.
Uganda, DR Congo and Sudan on December 14 launched a joint attack against the LRA rebels hiding in north-eastern DR Congo after its elusive leader Joseph Kony repeatedly refused to sign a final peace agreement his delegates negotiated with the Ugandan government in Juba, southern Sudan, since mid-2006.
"The allied forces condemn these attacks against innocent civilians by the LRA terrorists. It is this reason why Kony failed to sign the peace agreement for over two years and this justifies the action the allied troops have taken against these terrorists," Magezi added.
Source: Xinhua
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