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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

UGANDA: Army revises number of schoolgirls abducted by rebels

KAMPALA, 25 June 2003 (IRIN) - The Ugandan army has denied that 100 schoolgirls were abducted by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in the Kaberamaido district of northern Uganda.

According to Ugandan radio, army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said 29 girls had been kidnapped when rebels attacked Rwara school near the town of Soroti on Tuesday.

"Students ran away from the school in disarray, making it difficult to ascertain the number affected," he stated.

The Ugandan army's northeastern division commander, Col Andrew Guti, confirmed to IRIN on Wednesday that rebels had attacked the school and ambushed a passenger bus in the same district, but the number of casualties was not yet known.

Earlier reports said an estimated 100 students were abducted from the school, while three people were reportedly killed when the bus was attacked.

Observers note that the LRA appears to be expanding its sphere of attack. It has also recently carried out attacks in Adjumani, Katakwi and Soroti districts - the latter two being hundreds of kilometres southeast of Gulu, the principal town in the north and hitherto a main target of LRA raids.

The government insists that the recent surge in LRA attacks does not signify any victory by the rebels. President Yoweri Museveni has publicly stated it is because the rebels are under so much pressure in their traditional areas of occupation that they are spreading southwards.

“Now is a matter of mere survival for those rebels,” he told the state-owned daily 'New Vision'. "They are just roaming bandits...they can’t sustain it."

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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