UN Refugee Agency Probes Reports of Thousands Fleeing Rebel Attacks in Uganda
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UN News Service (New York)
April 26, 2004
Posted to the web April 26, 2004
Thousands of Ugandans and Sudanese have reportedly fled settlements in northern Uganda
in recent weeks following a series of raids by rebels of the feared Lord's Resistance
Army (LRA), according to the United Nations refugee agency.
Representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN World Food
Programme (WFP), and the Ugandan Government were travelling to the affected area over
the weekend to assess the situation in the important refugee-hosting Adjumani district.
"There are now thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons on the move in
the districts of Adjumani and Moyo," UNHCR Representative Cindy Burns said.
Over the last three months, UNHCR has recorded 25 rebel attacks in Adjumani and Moyo
districts, in which groups of seven to 25 people entered villages and refugee
settlements mainly to steal food and medicine.
Of the 12 LRA raids reported so far this month, nine were on refugee settlements,
including one on a site only 5 kilometres from UNHCR's field office outside Pakelle
town. Of the 13 attacks that occurred in March and February, eight were against the
refugee encampments.
Earlier this month the UN Security Council strongly condemned the atrocities committed
by the LRA, demanding that it immediately stop all attacks against civilians.
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Uganda
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said "a major
humanitarian emergency" was unfolding in Uganda, where the LRA had kidnapped 10,000
children and terrorized them into becoming "killing machines," attacking their own
villages and killing their own relatives.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has welcomed Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's offer to
negotiate with the LRA to try to peacefully resolve the conflict.
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