24,000 refugees flee rebel attack

The rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on Monday morning attacked and overran a refugee camp in northern Uganda, forcing some 24,000 Sudanese residents to flee, according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Bushra Malik, UNHCR's public information officer in Uganda, told IRIN from the capital, Kampala, that a group of armed LRA fighters attacked the Acholi Pii refugee camp - the third-largest in the country - in Pader District at 06:30, causing massive destruction of property. The group overpowered the Ugandan soldiers deployed to protect the camp following the LRA's mounting attacks on camps for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Uganda in recent weeks, she added. "They looted property. Whatever they could not loot, like vehicles, they burned," she said. Malik, however, said she did not have any details of casualties caused by the attack, which lasted at least two hours. She said most of the refugees had fled to Radh Koko, some eight kilometres away from the camp. "At the moment, we have a problem of getting detailed information on the situation there. They [refugees] ran in different directions. We don't know how many people have been killed in the attack. We are still waiting for the report on casualties," she said. Maj Shaban Bantariza, the Ugandan army spokesman, told IRIN on Monday that there were reports of some deaths resulting from the attack, but details were still "hazy". "We have heard reports of the rebel attacks. Our commanders have flown there to establish the situation on the ground," he said. The attackers are believed to be part of a group of LRA fighters who fled intense attacks by government troops on their bases in southern Sudan and slipped back into northern Uganda. The operation, dubbed "Operation Iron Fist", is aimed at rooting out the LRA and its leader, Joseph Kony, from their bases in southern Sudan, with permission from the Sudanese government. In early July, LRA fighters attacked another refugee camp in Adjumani District, northern Uganda, killing five refugees and one Ugandan soldier, and torching buildings. In a more recent major attack, on July 26, the LRA killed some 42 civilians with machetes and knives in a village near the northern town of Kitgum, according to Bantariza. The renewed rebel attacks on civilians have upset contingency plans that aid agencies had earlier set up in anticipation for the resettlement of internally displaced people, and created fresh humanitarian concerns, according to humanitarian sources. Humanitarian agencies say they are carrying out assessments of the situation in the north. Timothy Bishop, the International Rescue Committee country director for Uganda, told IRIN last week that his group was assisting the Ugandan government, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and other humanitarian agencies in coordinating a response to the crisis affecting the northern districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader.