Soroti hit again, 14 huts torched
By Patrick Elobu Angonu
September 10, 2003
SOROTI -- The Lord's Resistance Army rebels attacked Soroti town on Tuesday morning and torched 14 huts.
They also killed a baby and abducted two girls, army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza has said.
The attack on Kichinjanji Ward, east of Soroti town, is the fourth such raid since President Yoweri Museveni camped in Teso to oversee the UPDF offensive against the LRA rebels.
The Kichinjanji Internally Displaced Persons camp, is hardly a kilometre from the army's tactical headquarters at Soroti Flying School.
"It is true the LRA rebels attacked Kichinjanji and torched 14 huts before abducting two girls but the attack was not aimed at our military base at the Flying School," Maj. Bantariza said when contacted on phone on Tuesday.
Asked if the attack indicates an escalation of LRA operations, Bantariza said any raid on Soroti town is possible.
"We've not built a wall of soldiers around Soroti town to observe and check the entry and exit of people in order to isolate the rebels. So the LRA remnants
that we've scattered regroup and attack the town," Bantariza said.
"If it is an escalation, you look at two things, the extent of the damage and the number of the rebels involved ... there were only 10 rebels who couldn't venture to attack the UPDF at the Flying School," he added.
Bantariza said that Karimojong warriors were not recruited because the LRA had intensified operations in Teso.
"The Karimojong vigilantes are just going to secure Soroti-Moroto highway," he said.
The rebels also attacked five other women who are nursing machete wounds at the Soroti Regional Hospital. Hospital authorities identified the victims as Ms Ariamo Christine, Ms Joyce Ibiara, Ms Florence Amuge, Ajumo Christine and Christine Alaso.
Alaso told The Monitor at her hospital bed that the rebels struck at 1.30 a.m.
"We were woken up by gunshots," she said.She said that the rebels got them as they fled. "That is how they beat us," he said.Ms Deborah Apio was unlucky. Her two-year old daughter, Juliet Akulo, died in one of the torched huts."Due to panic I could not pick up the baby that dropped from my hands as the rebels struck on Kichinjanji," the tearful Apio said as she sat infront of her dead baby.UPDF soldiers also delivered a body of an Arrow Group operative at Soroti Hospital. He was killed by the LRA.
President Museveni is scheduled to launch a prayer and fasting session to end the LRA war in Soroti town today.President Museveni is scheduled to launch a prayer and fasting session to end the LRA war in Soroti town today.
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
