LRA Attacks on the Rise in Central Africa
March 30, 2012
A nurse dresses the machete wounds on the head of Jean-Marie Anigbishe, 45, who was attacked by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels near Ngalima in northeastern Congo. (File Photo)
The Lord’s Resistance Army is stepping up attacks in Central Africa, displacing thousands of people. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, says LRA attacks have been on the rise since January in both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.
Since the beginning of the year, 33 attacks have occurred in DRC’s northeastern Orientale Province. Some 4,000 people have been displaced. The province borders CAR, Uganda and South Sudan.
UNHCR spokesperson Celine Schmitt says many of the LRA attacks have occurred in March.
“People have been displaced again during the last two weeks. Since the beginning of March, now we have recorded more than 13 attacks against civilians in the DRC’s Orientale Province,” she said.
Too scared to go home
Schmitt is in the province’s Dungu territory, scene of the recent LRA activity. She says at least two people were killed and 13 abducted, including a child. More than 1,100 people have been displaced in the past two weeks alone.
“I met with people. They told me that they had to flee in the middle of the night because of the attacks. The rebels came to the villages. They burned the houses. They looted the houses. And they had to flee in order to avoid being kidnapped, abducted. So they fled towards Dungu. They walked in the middle of the night,” she said.
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