Justen Martian .
“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.
