By Patrick Elobu Angonu
September 2, 2003
SOROTI � Soroti town was brought to a deathly standstill yesterday after rebels of the Lord�s Resistance Army ambushed a bus and killed at least 25 people in three attacks.
Raids on villages in the region over the weekend left a further 14 dead, bringing the overall number of those killed to 39.
The rebels struck a Gateway bus, registration number UPL 402, at 9:30 a.m. at Atirir Catholic Mission in Katine sub-county yesterday.
The attack occurred 17km north of Soroti town on the road to Lira.
The rebels also struck at Okwalo, 20 km north of Soroti, on the road to Amuria, where a small saloon car was burnt to cinders.
The District Internal Security Officer for Kaberamaido, Lt Chris Ruyondo; the headmaster of Kamidakan Primary School, Mr Edward Ekere; and a Catholic parish priest, Fr Lawrence Oyuru, were among the 25 people who were killed in the attack on the bus.
When contacted for a comment, the army spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza, confirmed the attack but declined to give details and referred The Monitor to the field commanders in Teso.
"There was an ambush this morning on a bus travelling from Soroti to Namasale," Bantariza said.
He added that the victims were either bludgeoned or hacked to death.
The spokesman of the UPDF�s 3 Division, Lt. David Etyang, confirmed the attacks and said the LRA killed 25 people and injured nine others before setting the Gateway bus ablaze at Atirir.
The rebels also struck a mini-bus in Asamuk sub-county in Katakwi district yesterday.
Speaking on phone from Asamuk sub-county headquarters, the area LC-V councillor, Mr Moses Otim, said the Soroti-bound omnibus, registration number UEG 900, came under attack at 1:30 p.m. at Okwalo shortly after leaving Asamuk.
Otim said that the rebels had earlier attacked Molodok village in Asamuk and abducted an undisclosed number of people.
Otim told The Monitor that the authorities could not account for Amuria town mayor, Mr Sebi Okwii, Asamuk deputy head teacher Ogulan and Amucu catholic priest Fr Francis Kayaye, who were in the omnibus when it came under attack.
After the attacks, hundreds of residents of Soroti town flocked the regional referral hospital in the town to find out the fate of their relatives.
Several people filled the corridors of the hospital, some in tears, and others simply anxious, as news trickled in.
In downtown Soroti, people were seen standing in small groups discussing the attacks.
Survivors narrate ordeal
Ms Immaculate Akunyo was on the Gateway bus that was ambushed yesterday. She was one of the lucky people who escaped unharmed from the terror of the Joseph Kony-led rebels.
Akunyo told The Monitor that the rebels sprayed the bus with bullets deflating its tyres instantly.
�When the bus came to a halt, the rebels started pulling passengers one by one and killing them instantly.
�The rebels were heavily armed. They were about 100 and they were in uniform similar to that of the army.
�They killed 25 people in all on the spot but I suspect many people could have died in the bushes as they were shot as they attempted to flee,� Akunyo told The Monitor in Soroti yesterday.
Another survivor, Ms Betty Asege, was not so lucky.
Asege survived the ambush, but she dumped her 8-month-old baby, Sam Eniru, in the bushes as she fled.
�As they were busy killing especially men, we had a chance to take off. The rebels never bothered about us since their attention was taken by the personal effects that they laid their hands on,� a tearful Asege told The Monitor yesterday evening.
�I don�t know whether my baby survived.�
Additional reporting by AFP
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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