“The world has forgotten us, it’s terrible”, said to MISNA Monsignor Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala, Bishop of the diocese of Tombura-Yambio, after celebrating the funerals of the latest victims of the Ugandan rebels of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). LRA attacks and raids are relentless in this main Sudanese city in West Equatoria, not far from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The last victims were killed in the middle on the night on Saturday, just 2km from the centre of Yambio. “They even abducted 18 women and children”, added Monsignor Hiiboro Kussala. Last Friday the Ugandan rebels ambushed a car at around 20km from the city, shooting dead five people. These episodes come in a dramatic context not only in the Tombura-Yambio diocese and Western Equatoria state, but also over the borders. In Yambio there is even a Ugandan military post, say MISNA sources, “but the soldiers don’t ever hunt the rebels when they return to the base in the forest”. The insecurity is also affecting the economy, adds Monsignor Hiiboro Kussala, “because the people are too afraid to work in the fields”. An international conference was organised for Wednesday in Yambio to call for a decisive intervention of governments against the LRA violence. Bishops and officials from Sudan, the Central African Republic and DR-Congo will meet for three days to address the ongoing attacks and violence. Based on UN estimates, since the start of 2009 and last July the LRA rebels killed at least 1,500 people, forcing tens of thousands to flee.
This 10-year-old boy was abducted in DR Congo in May and managed to escape a few weeks later
Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been accused of going on a massive forced recruitment campaign in remote areas of central Africa. Human Rights Watch said the group had brutally abducted at least 697 adults and children over the past 18 months.
Civilians were said to have been taken in remote regions of the Central African Republic (CAR) and the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, has fought the Ugandan government since 1986.
Its fighters, who are being hunted by Ugandan special forces, are now spread across northern DR Congo, Southern Sudan and the east of the CAR.
“They’ve been carrying out mass-scale abductions in order to replenish their ranks,” Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, told the BBC’s World Today programme.
Some of those abducted managed to escape, bringing with them tales of children forced to kill other children and trained to treat other human beings as animals.
“The LRA tied the hands of the victims behind their back, a cord around their legs, and placed the victims face down on the ground,” a 12-year-old Congolese girl told Human Rights Watch.
“Then the LRA would give us children a heavy wooden stick and force us to beat them on the head till they died.”
International action
The Human Rights Watch report says girls are being used for sex or as servants. Refusing sexual relations is often punished by death.
“We’ve conducted interviews with hundreds of people over the course of the past month. And the evidence is overwhelming that this is indeed being ordered by the LRA’s leader Joseph Kony and being carried out by his top commanders,” Ms Van Woudenberg said.
To escape these activities, 54,000 villagers have fled from their homes in the Bas Uele region of northern DR Congo.
Mr Kony began his rebellion 20 years ago, claiming to want to install a Bible-based theocracy in Uganda.
He is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), and now lives an itinerant life, crossing between Sudan and the CAR.
Prayer is so appreciated while Don is in Haiti. He is not there with a team, although he is working with the Haitian men who he has worked with before. Pastor Banes has worked with Don since 1995 and Don met Luelle after the earthquake and has been helping Don ever since that time. Don is working on several projects while there on this trip. Clean water remains critical for the people of Haiti. Don reported yesterday that they have secured a piece of land near the tent-city that the GSCC team worked in during the May-June trip, where over 30,000 people are living without clean water or facilities. This is where Don and the team organized the two His & Her latrines for those in the tent city. It may not seems like much, but these are the only toilets for all of these people so far. One of the goals is to put in a well on this property that is adjacent to the tent city to provide water for the people. To this end, Don has purchased a container for secure storage and enough holding tanks for 30,000 gallons of water so that water can be distributed immediately, as well as water filters, until the well can be drilled and secured.
The cost of everything has increased in Haiti since the earthquake, so please pray that God will provide the necessary resources to complete all of this work. We are grateful for all who have helped, but there is more to do.
