WORLD> Africa
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WORLD> Africa
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Ugandan rebels kill 400 in DR Congo: charity
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-31 10:36 The United Nations mission in DR Congo (MONUC) said the LRA attacks followed the launching on December 14 of the joint military operation against it by the three countries. The operation followed the repeated refusal of LRA leader Joseph Kony, who is believed to be accompanied by several hundred supporters, to sign a peace deal with Kampala. A spokesman for the LRA said it was not responsible for the massacres, blaming the deaths on bombs dropped by the three African forces and said it had never harmed anyone He questioned how the three countries would let LRA forces kill civilians. In April the Ugandan authorities initialled a peace deal designed to end one of Africa's most savage and long lasting civil wars. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million displaced in Uganda in two decades of fighting between the Ugandan government and the LRA. The group is notorious for abductions of children for use as soldiers and sex slaves. The Ugandan army said Sunday that rebels had massacred 45 civilians in a church Friday, most of them women, children and the elderly. The rebellion began in northern Uganda in 1986 after Yoweri Museveni came to power. It blends a form of Christianity with traditional beliefs and extreme cruelty and brutality. Recruits may be forced to kill a family member to ensure they are not tempted to desert and go home.
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