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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
UGANDA: LRA gets close to presidential guard
KAMPALA, 5 September 2003 (IRIN) - The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which is active along the Soroti-Lira road in eastern Uganda's Teso district, on Friday attacked a truck further up the road along which President Yoweri Museveni’s own security convoy was travelling.
"It was very nearby," army spokesman Maj Shaban Bantariza told IRIN. "Possibly about 25 minutes before the president’s arrival, according to our sources on the ground.”
“When they got to the scene the rebels had already fled," he added. "They were not within shooting range.”
Presidential Press Secretary Mary Okurut said no changes to the president’s travel plans in Teso region were being scheduled.
“This was not an attack on the president, they just arrived to find an ambush had taken place. We’ll be continuing as normal,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) say they are making progress in driving the LRA out of Teso region.
“We are diminishing [LRA leader Joseph] Kony’s means to make war," Bantariza told IRIN. "We have armed militias in six sub-counties in Teso and we are having much success in capturing and killing these thugs, and recovering their weapons.”
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict
[ENDS]
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