LRA RAID DRC ARMY BASE

LRA raid Congolese army base
Sunday, 4th January, 2009

By Barbara Among

THE Lord’s Resistance Army rebels on Friday raided a Congolese army base in the Garamba jungles to get food, local officials said yesterday. In the overnight raid, the rebels attacked a park ranger station in Magero town, a few kilometres from the Sudan border.

“About 50 LRA rebels attacked Magero, home of the chief station of the Garamba park wardens, Friday evening,” Joseph Bangakya, the deputy governor of the northeastern province of Orientale, told the French news agencies, AFP, yesterday.

“They wanted fresh supplies but they did not know that elements of the FARDC (Congolese army) were there,” Bangakya said.

“Fighting went on for almost three hours and the FARDC succeeded in repelling the militias who retreated into the jungle.”

He said he had no details of casualties but no civilians had been hurt.

Efforts to get comments from the UPDF yesterday were fruitless.

On Friday morning, the rebels attacked an SPLA truck at Tori and a commercial truck in Yei, Sudan.

Local authorities said the rebels had retreated to the north of the Garamba jungles on the Sudan border.

There were reports that some LRA fighters were heading towards the Central African Republic (CAR).

Congo’s information minister Lambert Mende said yesterday that the CAR government was deploying troops at its borders with DR Congo.

“According to intelligence we have received, they are preparing to enter Central African Republic. A pursuit is underway,” said Mende.

LRA forces have been seen in the Ango region on the border with CAR, Bangakya said.

Meanwhile, a group of civilians from the chiefdom of Mopoyi in Ango, have organised patrols to prevent attacks by the LRA.