LRA attacks another refugee camp

The rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on Monday attacked another refugee camp in northern Uganda - the third such attack in just over two months - looting and displacing more than 6,000 Sudanese refugees, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said. The attack on the camp at Maaji in Adjumani District, followed an earlier raid on the same camp in July. On 5 August, the LRA attacked the Acholi-Pii camp in neighbouring Pader District, putting all its 24,000 resident Sudanese refugees to flight. The Ugandan authorities and UNHCR this week said they were finalising plans to resettle the Acholi-Pii refugees at safer sites in western and northern Uganda. In the latest attack, a woman refugee was wounded and 19 other refugees were abducted by a group of about 80 LRA fighters, a UNHCR statement said. However, the LRA assailants hastily left the camp, abandoning their loot on Monday evening, after the arrival of Ugandan government troops there. Juan Castro-Magluff, the acting UNHCR country director for Uganda, warned that another attack could not be ruled out. Most of the 6,000 refugees displaced from the camp have since been moved into primary schools, churches, nurseries and health posts at the Maaji site, he said. The refugee agency said it was now planning to move the group to a temporary transit centre in the area. "The refugees themselves are in good shape, but very shaken," Castro-Magluff said in the statement. The LRA, whose doctrines are rooted in Christian fundamentalism and traditional religions, has been fighting President Yoweri Museveni's government since 1987, with the aim of founding a government in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments. The group, which characteristically attacks villages - looting, killing and abducting civilians - has since June stepped up its campaign in northern Uganda, causing serious humanitarian concerns there.