Countries cooperating over LRA - defence minister

Ugandan Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi has said the government is now satisfied that Sudan is committed to helping Uganda fight the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. In a sign that diplomatic relations between the two countries are thawing, Mbabazi said cooperation between Sudan and Uganda to root out the LRA was back on track. He said the renewal of the “Operation Iron Fist” agreement between the countries – which allows Uganda into southern Sudan to attack LRA bases there – was a clear sign that Sudan is committed to flushing the rebels out of Sudan. “Operation Iron Fist continues,” Mbabazi told a press conference on Friday at the ministry of defence headquarters in Bombo, 50 km from Kampala. “[Sudanese President] Omar Bashir has given us his sincere assurances that the Sudan government regards the LRA as an enemy of Sudan.” Throughout the 1990s, Uganda and Sudan were fighting a proxy war. Uganda was arming and training the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army whilst Sudan was supporting the LRA, providing bases, supplies and training. In 1993 they severed diplomatic relations, but the hostilities officially ended when Sudan and Uganda signed a peace pact in Nairobi in 1999. Even with the pact in place, the LRA has been able to use southern Sudan as a rear base from which to attack targets in northern and eastern Uganda. In June, Uganda accused elements within the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of continuing to support the LRA, in violation of the Nairobi protocol, and relations between the countries soured. But Mbabazi said Uganda was now satisfied it was only “rogue elements within the SAF who are supporting the LRA”. “We have shared this information with them,” Mbabazi said, “and they have promised us they will crack down heavily on any officers who continue to offer assistance to these bandits. We have every confidence that Sudan is going to handle this problem.”