Barlonyo Reeling From Raid
LIRA - The Lord's Resistance Army rebels killed 192 people in a camp in Lira district on Saturday.
Another person died of bullet wounds at Lira hospital yesterday. This is the second massacre in the district in under a month.
The rebels, camouflaged in Amuka militia uniform, attacked Barlonyo Internally Displaced Persons' Camp late on Saturday, burning huts and firing on people with assault rifles and mortars, eyewitnesses said.
The camp, which houses about 5,000 people -according to army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza - is found in Ogur sub-county, 26km north of Lira town, in Erute North.
Eyewitnesses said the attack left bodies strewn all over the camp and terrified survivors scampering to safety.
"The rebels overran a UPDF detach and burnt all the huts in the camp," Lira district chairman Franco Ojur said yesterday. "The number of those dead is definitely higher than that of the recent attack in Abia."
On February 5, the LRA killed about 50 people in Abia camp, 10km from the scene of yesterday's grisly slaughter. President Museveni later said he had instituted a board of inquiry into the circumstances of the attack.
He also said the Abia killings did not amount to a massacre. Mr Ojur could not say the number of the dead. However, The Monitor yesterday morning counted 173 bodies at the scene of the attack.
Erute North MP Charles Angiro, with other area MPs and district officials, later visited the camp and said they counted 192 bodies.
The MP said some of the bodies were found in the nearby bushes. "I have personally counted 192 dead bodies," Mr Angiro said by telephone last evening.
Moroto county MP Alex Okot, who also visited the scene, blamed yesterday's attack on the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces whom he said failed to reinforce the Amuka Boys militia.
The militia is made up of young men from Lango, who are trained and armed to help the army in its long-running campaign against the rebels.
Army Talks
Eyewitnesses said the rebels used machetes to hack some of the victims. About 60 people, who sustained burns and machete wounds, were admitted to Lira hospital. The rebels also abducted an unspecified number.
The camps for the internally displaced have been left to the militia to guard while the UPDF chases after the often-elusive rebel bands.
Maj. Bantariza put the number of the dead at 80 civilians and two Amuka militia members. He said the army was yet to establish the number of the rebels who attacked the camp.
He said the rebels used Rocket Propelled Grenades and B-10 bombs to overwhelm the militia guarding the camp. "The people retreated into their huts and rebels set them on fire," Bantariza said.
"I saw one hut with seven family members still burning and three [people] in the next hut were also still burning,'' the Rev. Sebhat Ayele told an international news agency by telephone from Lira town.
Bantariza said that the LRA were attacking Amuka-guarded camps to scare and demoralise the militia. Said the army publicist: "They want the these militias to flee their guarding duty so that UPDF can be recalled from the field and redeployed on guard duty. That would relieve them of the pressure we are exerting on them."
Fifth Division spokesman, 2nd Lt. Chris Magezi, said government forces were pursuing the rebels.
Hospital Stretched
The medical superintendent of Lira hospital, Dr Achieng Ochero, told The Monitor that the hospital has been overstretched by the number of victims. "We have admitted 14 males, 35 females and six children but unfortunately one lady with a bullet wound in her abdomen died on the way to the theatre," Ms Ochero said.
Four of the admitted children had lost their parents in the attack. She said the patients had burns and nail wounds. She said the hospital was running short of supplies.
"We are [under] pressure but the ministry [of Health] has dispatched more supplies and they are on the way," the hospital boss said.
Rebel leader Joseph Kony, now facing investigation by the International Criminal Court, has fought President Museveni's government since 1988.
The rebellion has ravaged the northern and northeastern region where thousands of people have died, been displaced from their homes into camps or abducted into rebel ranks or married off to rebel commanders.
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