Joseph Kony’s LRA Resurfaces In Yambio, South Sudan Killing 2, Abducting Others

YAMBIO, South Sudan:  The Ugandan rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army- LRA has resurfaced in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state. Local authorities and witnesses say the LRA killed two people and displaced scores of others last week. The rebel group disappeared from northern Uganda and South Sudan more than a decade ago.

Residents from villages around the Western Equatoria state capital, Yambio, reported seeing the rebels march through the area last week.Zingbondo J. Emmanuel, a former director general in the now defunct Gbudue state’s information ministry says villagers scattered after seeing LRA troops march through villages near Sakure town. He says he fears villagers who fled to Sakure could be vulnerable to the coronavirus.“those people who are displaced there have come to Sakure to stay with people who have been there yet it’s not supposed to be congested.” 

 “These are some of the things that we are even worried of.” Emmanuel said in an interview with The Insider.Eye witnesses say LRA forces did not only killed but also looted people in and around Western Equatoria. Elia Taban Wande fled to the Amadi area in the Democratic Republic of Congo, some 200 kilometers from his home town Isiro in South Sudan. Wande tells South Sudan In Focus that the LRA looted and killed  at least two people in the Kpaika and Duru villages near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.“They have become active around Duru where they killed one soldier, one motorcycle rider. And generally they appear and loot people, picking money from them. They are well equipped with new arms. They seem to be organized.Wande says most of the displaced are being resettled in Dungu, a small town in Congo.
Pascal Bandindi Uru, a Member of Parliament representing Tambura and Nagero counties in the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, confirms the LRA have killed civilians in the past few weeks.“What we have heard so far is that the LRA killed two people in a placed called Duru which is right at the border with Congo. They are moving to Sakure, they are moving to Besukambi.

”The LRA is notorious for maming civilians, abducting thousands of children, and killing unarmed villagers since the group began its rebellion in northern Uganda in 1987.  The group has been suspected of operating in the DRC for years. It has committed a number of massacres and other human rights abuses against populations in northern Uganda and South Sudan.Emmanuel says an unknown number of people were abducted by the rebels in areas near the Bamu River.“They abducted people but we have to identify who exactly is missing in that area because usually when people disperse it takes some time to know who is not on board. He said, adding “these are the suspects that they might have taken them along.” Emmanuel says local authorities and commanders in the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces rushed to the area.Army spokesman Maj Gen Lul Rua Koang says LRA rebels were detected on the Congolese side of the border by the South Sudan Defense Forces in the area.“The in intelligence got some information they appeared on the Congolese side of the border,” Koang confirmed on phone.“And for some reasons they also disappeared into the interior so I can confirm to you that we don’t have LRA in South Sudan they are still inside Congo. Our side of the border is very secure that’s why our operatives were able to detect the presence of the LRA at the border.” He told The Insider.LRA leader Joseph Kony was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005. In December 2008 a joint force of Ugandan, Rwandan and Congolese troops launched a major offensive against Kony but he escaped and has remained at large.MP Uru says the reappearance of the LRA in South Sudan poses a major security threat especially now when officials are trying to curb the spread of COVID 19. “The Central African Republic has confirmed cases of coronavirus as well as DR Congo and Congo has Ebola for that matter.” Uru says residents of Western Equatoria “must be very vigilant in handling the presence of LRA in Besukambi or in Sakure.” “We advise our security organs, of course as usual they know their duty, and they [SSPDF] will take the issue seriously.” he added.