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Kony orders massive abduction in DRC

  1. Posted on Friday 13 August 2010 - 13:09
    raphie
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    By Ryekolal Raphie africaNews reporter in Kampala Uganda
    Kampala-The US-based Human Rights Watch has reported that the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), headed by Joseph Kony, has embarked on “massive abduction” of adults and children in the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

    The LRA has abducted an estimated 697 people in the last 18 months on the orders of Kony, the human rights watchdog said in a statement issued yesterday.

    It said in May, Kony directed his commanders to institute a massive abduction campaign of mainly children aged between 10 and 15 years with a view of returning to Uganda to continue with his atrocities.

    “At least four former abductees who spent months or years with the LRA and had learned to speak Acholi told the Human Rights Watch that Kony ordered his commanders to abduct children.”

    The army spokesperson, Lt. Colonel Felix Kulayigye, however, disputed the figure of those abducted and said “We know there are abductions going on, but a figure of nearly 700 people is an exaggeration because it is impossible for the LRA to sustain such a big number,” he said yesterday.

    During a month-long Human Rights Watch research mission in CAR and the Bas Uele district of northern Congo, from July 12 to August 11, over 520 civilians were interviewed, including 90 former abductees, individuals and focus groups.

    And the organisation urged Uganda, the United Nations and other regional governments to urgently lay a new strategy of protecting civilians and children who are brutally abducted and killed daily by the rebels.
    End

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