Dozens dead in Ugandan rebel attack in CAR: sources
Date 2009/11/26 9:30:29 | Topic: Afran
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BANGUI (Reuters) - Dozens of people were killed in a remote corner of Central African Republic when Ugandan rebels attacked villagers but were then ambushed by Ugandan soldiers, a witness and local media said.
The killings took place last week around Djemah, 850 km (530 miles) east of the capital, Bangui, and are the latest in a wave of attacks by the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, a militia that roams around CAR, Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo killing and kidnapping civilians.
"There were more than 40 rebels armed with guns, machetes and clubs. They attacked the village from three directions," said Leon Hetanga, a Djemah resident who escaped the attack and travelled to Bangui to speak about the November 18 incident.
"What followed was carnage. The village's two shops were pillaged, houses burned. Hidden up a mango tree I saw this horrible scene ... three men were killed by machetes and two women were bound up and taken as prisoners," he added.
Hetanga said at least 11 people had been killed by the time he escaped the village and alerted Ugandan soldiers, based 25 km away, who launched an counter attack on the rebels.
"It was carnage for the rebels when they were ambushed next to the Ngoangoa River by the Ugandan soldiers," Hetanga said.
Bangui has allowed Kampala to dispatch Ugandan special forces to hunt down rebels in CAR, one of the weakest and most isolated nations in central Africa.
The LRA's wave of attacks across the three countries follows a nearly two-decade long war in Uganda's north and a Ugandan-led multinational strike on rebel bases in Congo last year.
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