SPLM/A clash with LRA rebels in Sudan

Fierce fighting has erupted in southern Sudan between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, a senior SPLM/A official told IRIN on Wednesday. George Riek Machar, the SPLM/A spokesman in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, said scuffles broke out after the LRA ambushed an SPLM/A position near the front line with Sudanese government forces. "We fought back and chased them out," he told IRIN. "We lost two men when they brought reinforcements for a counterattack, but we have since taken some prisoners." Machar said the LRA had been killing civilians and looting food and cattle in the area. He said pursuit of the group was part of increased SPLM/A pressure on the LRA in the run-up to the expected peace deal with the Sudanese government. "The LRA are killing more people in Sudan than in Uganda. All the displacement near the border is because of them. The SPLM/A would very much like to finish them once and for all," he said, "Once the peace deal is in place, our full attention will turn to the LRA." According to SPLM/A intelligence, the rebels are operating out of Khartoum-government-controlled territory. "The latest group came from Katire in the mountains near Torit. And we have intelligence they are hiding in a place called Gorajabor: this is very far behind enemy lines," said Machar. He said no agreement to cooperate with the Ugandan army had yet been struck. "They only have to call and we would be willing to help them in Sudan," he noted. Sudanese embassy officials in Kampala declined to comment on the whereabouts or otherwise of LRA rebels in Khartoum-controlled territory. The cult-like LRA has waged war in northern Uganda for 18 years. Led by a reclusive mystic, Joseph Kony, they say they want topple the Ugandan government. Yet they consistently target defenceless civilians. In 1995, they slaughtered 240 civilians in an attack on a village in Atiak, herding them into a corner and shooting them dead. Two weeks ago, they again killed more than 200 internally displaced persons in Barlonyo camp near Lira.