AFRICA/CONGO - Ugandan rebels attack eastern Congo, forcing missionaries to flee the land and join the population taking refuge in a Sudan diocese

Tuesday, 23 September 2008

Rome (Agenzia Fides) – “Fr. Mario Benedetti and Fr. Ferruccio Gobbi are fine. They are in Yambio, in southern Sudan and are preparing their documents to travel to Kampala, in Uganda, where we have our Provincial House. The other Combonian missionary of Sudanese nationality, Fr. Magalasi, has gone to his family’s house for a period of rest,” Fr. Umberto Pescantini, Secretary General of the Combonian Missionaries, said in confirming the fact that the three missionaries that worked in Duru, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, were able to escape before being captured by members of the Ugandan guerrilla group, The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Last week, the LRA attacked three villages in the eastern province of Congo, on the border with southern Sudan: Duru, Kiliwa, and Nambia. In the event, hundreds of houses were burned and destroyed, including several structures at the mission. According to UNICEF (the UN Children’s Fund), the guerrillas have kidnapped nearly 90 children. “From the reports we have that can be confirmed, about 90-100 children have been kidnapped from the various local schools,” Fr. Pescantini said. The missionaries were able to flee the area and reach the border with Sudan, along with part of the population. They sought refuge in Yambio, thanks to the generosity of Bishop Edward Hiiboro Kussala, Bishop of Tombura-Yambio.
“This is yet another sad chapter in the iniquity this group carries out,” Fr. Pescantini said. “In spite of the efforts and talks that have taken place in recent years, the LRA leaders always find some excuse not to sign a peace agreement. I’m afraid that now they have grown accustomed to living in the forest and living off of the people, taking the little they have, and kidnapping their children.”
The LRA has dominated northern Uganda for over 20 years, hiding out in the forest of southern Sudan. For sometime now, they have extended their “playing field” to include the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their activity is always the same, attacking defenseless villages, looting and killing the local population and finally, they take refuge in the forest, taking with them the children they kidnap and who are forced to serve in their ranks. It is a crime for which the International Crime Court has issued an arrest warrant for the LRA leaders.
In order to end the LRA’s violence (as they are now a regional problem), the government in southern Sudan in 2006 began a complex and difficult negotiation process, that after a series of preliminary accords, was to lead to the signing of a peace agreement on April 10 between the Ugandan government and the LRA leaders. However, at the last minute, LRA leader Joseph Kony refused to sign the agreement (see Fides 11/4/2008). The government in Kampala has since begun an offensive military operation, in cooperation with the army in southern Sudan, Congo, and the MONUC (UN operation in Congo), in order to hunt down the guerrillas (see Fides 4/6/2008). (LM) (Agenzia Fides 23/9/2008)


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