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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 07 February 2006

UGANDA: LRA's Joseph Kony now in DRC, says military

KAMPALA, 7 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - The leader of the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony, has crossed over to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from his hideout in southern Sudan, the Ugandan military has said.

"He crossed over from Sudan to the DRC, but he has moved further from Garamba National Park, where (LRA deputy commander-in-chief) Vincent Otti is. He is now moving towards the Central African Republic," said Lt Chris Magezi, army spokesman in northern Uganda.

Magezi said on Monday that the rebel leader had entered the DRC four days earlier and was on the move with a band of about 15 fighters.

Chief army spokesman Maj Felix Kuraije also confirmed that Kony was in the DRC.

"Since last week the pursuit has been on. In one of the encounters near [the southern Sudanese town of] Juba, we managed to rescue a number of children, including a commander aged about 18, who was abducted as a child by the rebels in 1998," Kuraije said from the northern Ugandan town of Gulu.

"There were also women in that group," he said. "Kony slipped away and headed further west to the DRC."

The insurgents have traditionally operated from bases in southern Sudan and northern Uganda. However, Otti moved into northeastern DRC's Garamba National Park in September 2005 with up to 400 fighters.

Recently, the rebels killed eight Guatemalan peacekeepers from the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) in Garamba.

The LRA has waged war in northern Uganda for close to two decades, kidnapping thousands of boys and girls and forcing them to serve as child soldiers and sex slaves. In 2005, the International Criminal Court at The Hague issued arrest warrants for Kony and four of his senior commanders - including Otti - for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[ENDS]

This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but May not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006