Uganda rebels shoot drinkers dead

By Nathan Etengu
BBC, Mbale, Uganda

Rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have killed 23 people in a market in the northern Ugandan district of Lira.

The LRA rebels are notorious for their brutality

The incident occurred on Monday night at Abako market where a group of some 17 rebels rounded up people as they were drinking a local alcoholic brew before shooting them.

In addition to the deaths, 17 others were critically injured.

The LRA rebels are led by Joseph Kony and are based in the southern part of Sudan, northern Uganda and, of late, in eastern Uganda.

They have fought the government since 1988.

Mistaken identity

The Lira resident district commissioner, Charles Egou Engwau, told me on Wednesday morning that the rebels also abducted an unknown number of civilians.

He said that reinforcements from the Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) were on Tuesday dispatched to the area to assist the Rhino Defence Unit - a militia unit - to pursue the rebels.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and more than a million others displaced by the fighting in northern Uganda alone.

Mr Engwau said that the victims in the latest attack mistook the rebels for the Rhino Defence Unit and even exchanged greetings with them in the local language.

"Shortly after they exchanged the greetings, the rebels opened fire on the group that was seated around a pot enjoying a local brew," Mr Engwau said.

Ambush

He told me that the rebels had earlier survived a Rhino Defence Unit ambush after one of the militia fighters panicked and fired in the air.

Uganda's self-defence militia

In pictures

The rebels then retreated and moved through the villages abducting people until they reached the local market where they found the drunken victims.

Mr Engwau said that a splinter group of the LRA rebels had concentrated their operations along the swamp separating Lira district from Kaberamaido and Katakwi.

The army, assisted by the Arrow Group and the Rhino Defence Unit personnel from eastern and northern Uganda respectively, has been fighting the LRA rebels who infiltrated into the two regions in June.

The rebels abducted hundreds of children, many of whom have either fled to safety or have been rescued by the UPDF and allied forces.