UN humanitarian chief highlights LRA terror to Security Council

(New York, 21 January 2009): The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have "spread their unique brand of terror" across communities in northern Uganda and southern Sudan and more recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic according to John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Briefing the Security Council on 16 January, the UN humanitarian chief expressed concern over massive violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law and the repeated refusal of LRA leader Joseph Kony, most recently in December, to sign the Final Peace Agreement that his own delegation negotiated through the Juba Peace Talks.

Following Kony's failure to make peace, the forces of Uganda, DRC and Southern Sudan launched joint military operations against the LRA in their hide-out in the Garamba National Park in DRC. These are continuing, but meanwhile fleeing groups of LRA fighters have stepped up further their attacks against civilians in this region, with horrifying consequences.

According to Mr. Holmes, in the DRC's Northern Province Orientale, between September 2008 and late December, there had already been attacks on 20 locations. Since late December and the start of the military campaign against them, there have been 16 more. The brutal assaults bear all the hallmarks of the LRA, including killings, abductions, rape, torture, looting and destruction of property, said Mr. Holmes. The total estimated number of civilian deaths is 569. As many as 427 civilians have been abducted. Among the dead, wounded and abducted are women and children.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also reports approximately 8,000 Congolese refugees in Southern Sudan, 2,000 of whom arrived after the December attacks. UNHCR estimates that over 100,000 people are internally displaced in 16 to 20 different locations in the affected area. Lifesaving humanitarian assistance to the survivors and the displaced, particularly food and medical care, and establishing areas safe enough for the people to receive assistance and care, remain a major challenge.

Mr. Holmes noted meanwhile that in Northern Uganda the humanitarian and security situation shows marked improvement with 1.3 million of the displaced having already returned to their homes, or areas nearby. However, the UN humanitarian chief remarked that the repeated refusal by the LRA to sign the Final Peace Agreement was "deeply disappointing and worrying" despite on-going efforts by the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, former President Joaquim Chissano, and the Government of Southern Sudan.

Mr. Holmes informed the Council that he would visit Dungu and Faradaje in the DRC in February. He reiterated his appeal to the LRA to sign the Final Peace Agreement, to begin assembly and demobilization without delay, and immediately release all abductees, particularly women and children, within their ranks.

For further information, please call: Stephanie Bunker, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1 917 892 1679, bunker@un.org; Nicholas Reader +1 212 963 4961, mobile +1 646 752 3117, reader@un.org, John Nyaga, OCHA-NY, + 1 917 367 9262, nyagaj@un.org; Elisabeth Byrs, OCHA-Geneva, +41 22 917 2653, mobile, +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org. OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int