Uganda Rebel Attack Kills at Least 22
By HENRY WASSWA
.c The Associated Press
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Rebels fighting a 17-year insurgency raided a village in northeast Uganda, killing at least 22 people, a local government official said Sunday.
The rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, attacked Olekai, 168 miles northeast of Kampala, on Saturday, killing five civilians and six members of a local civilian defense force, said Musa Echweru, the coordinator of the force in district.
Eleven rebels were also killed, Echweru said by telephone.
The civilian defense force, known as the Arrow Boys, is mainly made up of former soldiers and was formed by the government about two months ago in response to increasing attacks by the LRA.
``The remnants of the rebels are being followed by the army and the Arrow Boys,'' Echweru said.
Led by Joseph Kony, who claims to have spiritual powers that can protect his fighters, the LRA is a shadowy organization that has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, since his forces came to power in 1986 after a five-year bush war.
The group replenishes its ranks with children it abducts to keep as fighters, porters or concubines. The rebels rarely speak to journalists and could not be reached for comment.
The rebellion has wreaked havoc across northern Uganda, and in recent months the LRA has launched attacks in eastern parts of the East Africa nation as well, forcing some 300,000 people to flee their homes since June, according to the U.N. World Food Program.
Some 1.1 million of Uganda's 24 million people have been displaced by the insurgency.
09/28/03 21:35 EDT
