Africa

Africa

Ugandan military suspends LRA rebel hunt in CAR

03 April 2013 01:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Ugandan military on Tuesday announced that it had suspended its operations in the Central African Republic (CAR) to hunt down rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) which have caused mayhem in the Great Lakes region, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Col. Felix Kulayigye, the Chief Political Commissar of the Ugandan military told reporters here that the suspension follows the down fall of the CAR government after the Seleka rebel coalition overthrow it.

"The hunt for the LRA and Joseph Kony has been suspended for the time being pending further instructions from our superiors. This follows the fall of government in Central African Republic and because the African Union (AU) was operating in CAR under the president Bozize government and since Seleka is not recognized by the AU we could not continue with the operations," he said.

"We have gathered our troops in active defense awaiting further orders from our superiors," he added.

Kulayigye said that the U.S. troops which have also been assisting in the hunt down of Kony who is wanted by the International Criminal Court to answer charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity have also suspended their operations.

"As far as am concerned they have also agreed to suspend the operations because of the same circumstances," he said.

The U.S. had deployed over 100 troops to assist regional armies in the hunt of the Ugandan rebel group now holed up along the forested border of Democratic Republic of Congo and CAR.

Kulayigye said that the suspension may give the rebel group chance to regroup and carry out heinous activities like killings and abductions of children and women in CAR.

"They (communities) are exposed, but we have nothing to do for the time being," he said.

"Kony has been on the wall, he has not been getting supplies, he has not been abducting as much as he used to do, the messages of coming back home have been yielding fruits, the abductees are escaping," he said, noting that the suspension of the operations is a major setback.

He said the Ugandan military will only work with the new CAR government after it has been recognized by the AU.

The Ugandan military and other regional armies have been working under the AU force to hunt down the LRA.