Displaced fleeing LRA-linked insecurity into Juba

Thousands of people displaced by insecurity prompted by a joint Ugandan-Sudanese military operation against the (Ugandan) rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Eastern Equatoria, southern Sudan, have arrived in the government stronghold of Juba, according to aid officials. In the face of the joint offensive in the past fortnight, some 7,000 LRA rebels have fled their four main camps on the eastern bank of the White Nile, in southern Sudan, and dispersed in several groups, according to the Guardian newspaper in Britain. It cited intelligence sources as saying LRA groups were besieged by the Sudanese army southeast of Juba, and by the Ugandan army further east, near Mogiri and Magwe. The LRA have recently been attacking villages near Juba, with thousands of villagers fleeing to camps near Juba and saying their homes had been looted and burnt, according to sources in Sudan. The rebel group appeared to be angry with Sudan for cooperating with the Ugandan army and was attacking government-controlled villages in retaliation, they said. Elements of the LRA were in the mountains behind Laboni, in a remote area of Eastern Equatoria near the Sudan-Uganda border, and the Ugandan army was frequently passing through the area though there was currently no military activity, the Roman Catholic nongovernmental organisation Jesuit Refugee Services reported on Wednesday. LRA rebels hiding near Magwe, thought to number several thousand fighters and their families, included the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, the Guardian reported on 13 April, adding that the United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF) feared a massacre as Sudanese and Ugandan troops prepared for an all-out assault on the cultish army. UNICEF was finding it impossible to gain access to them and was growing desperate about the fate of child soldiers among them (many of whom were abducted by the insurgents), it said. "These are indoctrinated children who believe they have to fight to the death; neither Ugandan nor Sudanese soldiers are likely to feel too sorry for them," it quoted Nils Kastburg, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes, as saying. "We've got desperate parents in Uganda wanting their children back and meanwhile they're fighting to the death in Sudan," Kastburg said. "We are extremely frustrated not to be making more headway." The Ugandan and Sudanese governments said that, in cooperating to tackle the common security threat posed by the LRA, they would "spare no efforts to safeguard and maintain the safety of innocent civilians", and would seek the safe repatriation of abducted children. [see http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27052] UNICEF has repeatedly expressed concern over the fate of thousands of children abducted by the LRA, saying that those abandoned "must be found and protected" and those others caught up in the fighting must be treated as children. Executive Director Carol Bellamy emphasised early this month that Uganda had made clear its military campaign in southern Sudan was designed to secure the release of thousands of abducted children even as it destroyed the LRA, but that the agency had "yet to see any evidence that the children are being rescued". "We need to find out where these children are and then do everything possible to ensure their protection and, ultimately, reunification with their families," Bellamy added. However, the Ugandan army Director for Information and Public Relations, Shaban Bantariza, said it would be difficult for it to guarantee their safety, because most of them had become highly militarised and were combatants. Meanwhile, the Ugandan and Sudanese governments have extended their agreement allowing the Ugandan army to pursue the LRA inside Sudan, according to Radio Uganda. The campaign had been due to expire on Thursday, 18 April, but was extended this week to allow the operation to continue, it reported on Thursday, but without indicating the new deadline.