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Rome (Agenzia Fides) – More than 700 adults and children have been abducted in a largely unreported massive abduction campaign started by the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Central African Republic (CAR) and the neighboring Bas Uele district of northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), denounces Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Nearly one-third of those abducted have been children, many of whom are being forced to serve as soldiers or are being used for sex by the group’s fighters, the report says.
During the abduction campaign, the LRA is alleged to have brutally killed adults and children who tried to escape, walked too slowly, or were unable to bear the heavy loads they were forced to carry, Human Rights Watch found in its investigations in the region.
Overall, the report says, the LRA has killed at least 255 adults and children, often by crushing their skulls with clubs. In dozens of cases, the LRA reportedly forced captive children to kill other children and adults.
"The LRA continues its horrific campaign to replenish its ranks by brutally tearing children from their villages and forcing them to fight," Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at HRW, said.
Th report is fruit of a research mission to the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Bas Uele district of northern Congo, which found that the LRA’s abduction campaign was similar in both countries and is having a devastating impact on affected communities.
In southeastern CAR, the LRA reportedly began large-scale abductions on July 21, 2009, and to date has abducted 304 people, including many children.
The rebels first attacked the villages surrounding Obo, before moving west toward Rafai, Guérékindo, Gouyanga, Kitessa and Mboki, along the Congolese border, and north toward Djema, Baroua, and Derbissaka.
Meanwhile, a similar LRA abduction campaign is reportedly under way in the remote Bas Uele district of Congo. On March 15, 2009, the LRA allegedly attacked the town of Banda, abducting some 80 people.
Already, tens of thousands of people are said to have fled the area. In southeastern CAR, for instance, an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people have sought refuge in the main towns, leaving entire villages abandoned, while about 54,000 civilians have been displaced in the district of Bas Uele or have sought refuge across the border in CAR.
Currently, the UN peace-keeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO, reportedly has 19,000 peacekeepers across the country, of which only 1,000 are in the LRA-affected areas of northeastern Congo - far too few for the scale and geographical breadth of the problem. In fact, there are no peacekeepers based in the Bas Uele district of northern DRC.
"The protection of civilians under LRA attack across central Africa is woefully inadequate, with some communities receiving no protection or humanitarian aid at all," the HRW researcher commented. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 13/8/2010)
