LRA rebels resorting to crude weapons, army says

The rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which is active in northern Uganda, is resorting to crude weapons such as machetes and axes because it has run out of firearms and ammunition, a senior army official said on Friday. Media organisations reported on Friday that the LRA had attacked a village in the northern district of Gulu, and hacked 14 people to death using machetes and axes. Major Shaban Bantariza, Uganda's army spokesman told IRIN that the gang, which raided the Pageya-Acoyo village on the Gulu-Moroto road early on Thursday, was commanded by a woman fighter. According to Bantariza, the LRA action was a sign of desperation by the group. "Now they are not getting the constant supply they were getting in Sudan [which at one time backed the LRA]," he said. "They are not able to capture arms. Every bullet shot is the last one. That is why they are using machetes. They are keeping the bullets for their survival." The LRA, which has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni's government from bases in southern Sudan, has since June this year stepped up its campaign in northern Uganda. The attacks are characterised by the killing of civilians, abductions, looting and destruction of property. The escalation followed an agreement in March this year in which the Sudanese government permitted the Ugandan army to pursue the group in southern Sudan. According to Bantariza, religious leaders, who have been pressuring the government to begin talks with the LRA and have assumed the role of mediators in the conflict, have so far failed to bring tangible proposals so that talks can begin. "They [religious leaders] don't know the people they are dealing with. They are coming back empty handed," Bantariza said. However, Carlos Rodríguez, a Catholic priest and member of the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI), which has been spearheading the peace process in northern Uganda, recently noted that the escalating violence had prevented further meetings with the LRA.