Sudanese rebels say they killed 46 LRA rebels

Rebels fighting the Sudanese government in the southern Equatoria region have claimed that they killed 46 Ugandan insurgents of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) during heavy fighting around Lowai last week, and that they are on the lookout for LRA leader, Joseph Kony. The Equatoria Defence Forces said in a statement on Wednesday that the LRA killed four civilians when they attacked a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kuraangerebe. The reported clash came as Ugandan officials said their forces had pushed the rebels back into Sudan, after a recent raid on their camp near Juba. Some 120 LRA fighters were killed during the surprise attack on the rebel headquarters at Bileniang, about 200 km north of the Uganda-Sudan border, but Kony, who was in the camp, survived the raid. Last week, 77 former LRA fighters, most of them child soldiers, who were captured during the raid, were flown from Sudan to the northern Ugandan town of Gulu, together with four ex-wives of Kony. Lt Paddy Ankunda, the Ugandan northern army spokesman told IRIN that 13 of Kony's children were on the flight. Many of the fighters were coming to their home country for the first time, having been born in the jungles of southern Sudan where the LRA is said to have its bases. The children were transferred to two rehabilitation centers in Gulu while the "wives" were temporarily retained in Gulu military barracks. The LRA, which claims it wants to topple the Ugandan government and replace it with one based on the Biblical Commandments, has fought a brutal 18-year war in which it has habitually targeted children either for forced recruitment into its ranks or to turn into wives for its commanders. Up to 12,000 children, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, have been abducted by the rebels since June 2002. Approximately 44,000 children in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader Districts trek into towns each night from their villages to seek shelter from the threat of LRA attacks and abductions. Attempts by local leaders in the region to initiate dialogue between the LRA and the government have so far failed. The rebels are elusive while the government insists on a military solution to the conflict. Over the last few months, the army has captured several senior LRA commanders.