Uganda launches attack on rebel army
Government troops backed by helicopter gunships attacked rebel bases in remote hills in northern Uganda, killing 11 insurgents.
The army attacked the rebel hide-outs on the slopes of the Kilak Hills, about 260 miles north of Kampala, on Monday, said Lieutenant Paddy Ankunda.
“We attacked the rebels during a combined aerial and ground attack and we killed 11 of them, captured one and rescued one child who had been abducted,” Ankunda said.
It was not possible to contact members of the shadowy Lord’s Resistance Army, which has been fighting a 17-year insurgency in northern Uganda.
The rebellion has forced more than one million people to flee their homes across northern and north-eastern parts of this East African nation.
The Lord’s Resistance Army rose from the remnants of a revolt by soldiers from the Acholi tribe after President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, seized power in 1986. The Acholi tribe is the dominant one in northern Uganda.
The group replenishes its ranks with children it kidnaps to serve as fighters, porters or sex slaves.
The government often claims it is crushing the rebels, but the attacks continue.
In February, the rebels attacked a refugee camp in Lira district, slaughtering more than 200 unarmed civilians.
