Almost 100 killed in Uganda, army says
The East African - 10 hours ago
By AFP
Posted Wednesday, July 9 2014 at 11:43
Residents of a village in Kasese District, Uganda, attend the funeral
of residents who were killed during an attack on the village.
Photo/COLLEB MUGUME
By AFP
Posted Wednesday, July 9 2014 at 11:43
IN SUMMARY
Ugandan police say the attacks are ethnic battles, with the local
majority Bakonzo people trying to kill the minority Basongora people
because of "long-standing differences of culture and over land."
At least 96 people have been killed in four days of clashes between
tribal gunmen and Ugandan troops in the west of the country, the army
said today.
"Since the operation began we have killed 75 attackers," army
spokesman Ninsiima Rwemijuma in the Rwenzori region said, describing
fierce battles to protect a minority tribe from coordinated raids by
the dominant group in the region.
Assailants armed with machetes, spears and guns launched a series of
surprise attacks Saturday and Sunday to massacre neighbouring rivals,
with the army sending in extra troops to hunt down the fighters.
President Yoweri Museveni vowed in a speech Wednesday to "punish those
involved" in a "criminal scheme that has caused the death of so many
people."
Five soldiers, five policemen and 11 civilians were also killed,
making up a total of 96 dead in the mountainous and rural region that
borders the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fighting is ongoing,
although the army says it is now only between its forces and the
insurgents.
"We expect no more civilians dying because we have deployed enough
forces on the ground and neutralised attacks," Rwemijuma said.
Ugandan police say the attacks are ethnic battles, with the local
majority Bakonzo people trying to kill the minority Basongora people
because of "long-standing differences of culture and over land,"
police spokesman Fred Enanga said.
"There is a tribal conflict. Some of the Bakonzo do not want the
minority groups recognised as kingdoms within what they perceive to be
the larger 'Kingdom of Rwenzori', with Bakonzo the dominant tribe,"
Enanga added.
"Had it not been timely intervention of the security forces, it could
have reached an extent that the whole minority group was wiped out,"
he said.
The snow capped and remote Rwenzori mountains include Africa's third
highest peak Mount Stanley, a national park popular with tourists
wanting to trek into the vast, jungle-covered range. Fighting is not
in the park itself.
Mr Museveni said cultural groups in the region had been "actively
fomenting sectarianism and tribal chauvinism -- acting and talking as
if the only thing that matters are certain tribes to which the
respective traditional leaders belong."
Mr Rwemijuma fears the death toll could rise.
"The number of the attackers killed during contact with our forces or
dying due to wounds may go up," he said.
"Some may have escaped with gunshot wounds, and that is why we are
engaging sniffer dogs to flush out those who may be injured and
hiding, or just hiding to avoid detection."
Security forces have arrested more than 80 suspected fighters.
Assailants, who the army has said may have numbered up to 300,
"divided themselves into small groups," attacking army barracks,
police stations, a bank and the residences of government officials,
Rwemijuma said.
The police said they also attacked the security forces as they were
trying to stop the bloodshed.
"They had to attack us because we are part of government which
recognises the rights of the minority tribes and their culture in the
region, so they looked at us as their enemies," Enanga said, adding
that some of the attackers included retired members of the security
forces.
Both the army and police denied the attacks were related to any rebel
group, including the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamist rebel group
fighting the Ugandan government based in the DR Congo border region.
Last week the UN Security Council decided to slap sanctions on the
ADF, which is accused of recruiting child soldiers, sexual abuse of
women and children and attacks on peacekeepers in DR Congo's eastern
Kivu region, home to myriad rebel groups.
The ADF reportedly has ties to Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab
rebels, which have also carried out attacks on Ugandan soil in
retaliation for Kampala's support for an African Union force helping
Somalia's internationally backed government.
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