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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 23 August 2006

UGANDA: Army pursues rebels after attack on ambulance

KAMPALA, 23 Aug 2006 (IRIN) - The Ugandan military said on Wednesday it was pursuing six rebel fighters who had ambushed an ambulance a day earlier before setting it ablaze in the northern Pader district.

"Our units [have been] pursing them since then, but they have not caught up with them," northern Uganda based military spokesman, Lieutenant Chris Magezi, told IRIN by phone from Gulu. "That is the Lord's Resistance Army [LRA] for you. They declared a ceasefire, but they are still carrying out attacks, including ambushing an ambulance, which is not supposed to be attacked even during a conflict," he added.

Magezi said the insurgents looted some of the drugs before they set the Kalongo missionary hospital's ambulance on fire. The occupants were not hurt. "About six medics who were on board jumped out of the ambulance and fled into the bush unhurt and were rescued by [Ugandan People’s Defence Forces] soldiers who were nearby. The rebels burned the ambulance and looted some drugs," he said.

The LRA, which has been fighting government forces for the past 20 years, is engaging the government in landmark peace talks in the southern Sudan capital of Juba.

The rebel group declared a unilateral ceasefire and asked the Ugandan government to reciprocate its gesture, though the government refused, saying a ceasefire would only be part of a comprehensive deal that will be signed at the end of the talks.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and some two million displaced in northern Uganda since the LRA took leadership of a regional rebellion in 1988 in a bid to oust President Yoweri Museveni, sparking what the United Nations and other humanitarian groups have described as the world's most brutal and forgotten conflict.

In a related development, one child was killed and four others sustained serious injuries when unexploded ordnance they were playing with exploded in Parabongo in Gulu district on Tuesday, according to Magezi.

“The explosion killed the kid instantly and four [others] have been admitted to hospital with serious injuries,” he said. He said the army had a team of demining engineers trying to clean the countryside of these devices and that it was sensitising people in how to respond to suspicious objects in their community. “They are not many, but they are still there and we have started a sensitisation programme to educate the people as to what they should do in case such suspicious objects are seen in the villages,” he added.

vm/mw

[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