Suspected rebels kill 13 in southern Sudan

Thirteen people have been killed in two ambushes in southern Sudan by suspected fighters of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel group currently engaged in peace talks with the government, military officials said on Thursday.

The deaths occurred in an ambush on a lorry on Monday in Jabuleen, about 100 km south of Juba, the capital of southern Sudan. Two passengers died on the spot and eight others were abducted before being killed in the surrounding bushes, according to Ugandan army spokesman Lieutenant Chris Magezi.

"When we pursued them we found that the eight that they abducted had been massacred and their bodies were left in the bush," said Magezi.

Three other people were killed on Tuesday in another ambush near the town of Magwi, close to southern Sudan's border with Uganda, Magezi said. The ambushes constituted a serious violation of a cessation of hostilities agreement reached in August 2005, to facilitate peace talks aimed at ending two decades of the LRA insurgency in northern Uganda.

The LRA delegation, currently attending peace talks in Juba, could not be immediately reached to comment on the Ugandan military allegation. Southern Sudan is itself emerging from two decades of civil war and armed groups other than the LRA are known to still be active in the area.

"We are on the ground, and we were the first to get to the scene of the ambushes, and started pursuing the attackers," said Magezi. "Even survivors identified them as LRA," he said. The Sudanese government allowed Ugandan troops to deploy in southern Sudan several years ago to carry out operations against the LRA.

A southern Sudan government official said the attacks will be investigated by a team that monitors the ceasefire agreement to determine who was responsible.

The peace talks that began in July under the mediation of the south Sudan government have dragged on, with the ceasefire agreement being the only significant progress.

Thousands of people have died during the 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda. Another two million have been driven out of their homes and have lived in squalid conditions in camps around northern and eastern Uganda. The LRA is accused of abducting more than 20,000 children, conscripting boys as fighters or porters, and turning girls into sex slaves for senior male soldiers.

The International Criminal Court has indicted five of the LRA leaders, including its head, Joseph Kony. The indictments have become a bone of contention at the talks with the LRA who have demanded they be lifted.

vm/jn/jm